Solana in Egypt before heading to hotspot CAIRO: At the behest of the Palestinians, the European Union (EU) has agreed to take on a greater role in monitoring the Egypt-Gaza border especially at the Rafah crossing. Speaking in Cairo Wednesday after a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana said, "The Palestinians asked us to stay ... and we said yes we accept. But we would like to do it in a more effective manner, in particular on the question of the opening and closing of Rafah, we didn t have any [prior] responsibility in that. A decision to extend the role of the EU Border Assistance Mission for another 12 months (with an option to extend for a further six months) was taken on Monday. However, Israeli requests that EU monitors take a more hands on approach at the crossing, with liberties to search and seize items that could be used for weapons was declined by the EU. " The Palestinians are responsible for the border. What we have to do is to ensure that the way the Palestinian police act is in accordance with the Israeli-Palestinian agreement, an EU official told Reuters. Ninety EU monitors have been present at the borders since November 2005 after Israel ended a 38-year-old occupation of Gaza. However the Rafah crossing is often closed by Israel for security reasons. "People who are trying to cross, they don t know if the border will be open or closed, Solana said. "We would like to have a much better understanding of the mechanism. Solana's visit to Egypt was part of a wider Mideast tour which began Monday and will see him also meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders after leaving Egypt. I am going to the region ... to make an appeal, a call, for people to stop the violence and to recuperate the situation, the EU foreign policy chief said. Weapons smuggling across the Gaza-Egypt border is a major concern for both Egypt and Israel. Bombing attacks in Sinai have killed more than 100 people in the last two years. Tunnels under the border between Egypt and the troubled Gaza Strip are often used for smuggling goods, people and weapons, despite frequent crackdowns by Egyptian police and border guards. Weapons caches are often found and confiscated as they are being smuggled across the border.
