BRUSSELS, June 25 (UPI) -- European Union governments distanced themselves Tuesday from President Bush's call to marginalize Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat but coupled that with approval for U.S. support for peace in the Middle East.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin reflected the general European reaction to Bush's speech, which he said "converges with the aims of France and the European Union." However, the newly appointed minister added that it "was up to the Palestinians to choose their own leaders."
Senior European officials in Washington said privately the tough tone of Bush's speech reversing almost a decade of U.S. support for Arafat had caused considerable surprise because there had been -- as one official said -- "no prior consultation whatsoever with the E.U."
Bush lambasted the Palestinian leadership for supporting terrorism, indulging in corruption and concentrating power in the hands of an "unaccountable" elite. He called for "a new and different Palestinian leadership so that a Palestinian state can be born."
But the European official said Bush's broad signal to the Palestinians that Arafat needed to be replaced as a prerequisite to the establishment of a Palestinian state, "is rather alien to European thinking."
E.U. countries share the Bush administration's support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, but do not believe its creation should be dependent on ditching Arafat, who they continue to view as the democratically elected representative of the Palestinian people.
At a meeting in Seville Saturday, E.U. leaders said they expected the Palestinian Authority to "make good its commitment to security reform, early elections and political and administrative reform." But there was no mention of removing Arafat.
Unlike Bush, European heads of state reserved as much criticism for Israel as for the Palestinians. "Military operations in the occupied territories must cease," they said. "Restrictions on freedom of movement must be lifted. Walls will not bring peace."
On Tuesday German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer welcomed Bush's "clear commitment" to peace in the Middle East, but added, "The Palestinian people alone will decide who is their legitimate leader."
The European officials in Washington said an earlier version of Bush's statement had referred to the Middle East conference that has been under discussion as a way of moving things forward. But the president had hardened the tone of his speech following two suicide bombings on two consecutive days last week.
The E.U. has also moved to distance itself from Arafat following the recent spate of bombings, but that did not extend to Arafat's removal, European sources said.
European officials said it was particularly irritating that Bush seemed to be making E.U. help to the Palestinians conditional on a leadership change. Between 1993-2001, the 15-member bloc pumped in almost $1.4 billion to help shore up the Oslo peace process, making it by far the largest donor to the region.
"We hope this is not the United States telling the world what it should do because it won't work," said a foreign policy adviser to the Italian cabinet in Rome. "Each country will do what it thinks is in the best interests of the region."
In a statement welcoming Bush's "renewed engagement" Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, "As Israelis deserve security, Palestinians deserve help to reconstruct their economy and institutions in their territories."
The European press -- with whom Bush has never been a favorite U.S. president -- was less tactful in its reaction to Bush's call for Arafat's removal.
The Franch daily Le Monde called Bush's proposals "extraordinary, unjust and arrogant." In its editorial, Le Monde commented, "What gives the United States the right to say who should be at the head of a national liberation movement?"
The French left wing Liberation called Bush's proposals for a Palestinian state "vague," a promised land "so far off, so vague, so hypothetical."
(Roland Flamini, UPI international editor, Elisabeth Bryant in Paris, and Eric J. Lyman in Rome contributed to this story).
