Sarkozy's bid for Middle East peace

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has positioned himself as a possible Middle East peace broker.

In the first address to Israel's Knesset by a French president since Francois Mitterrand in 1982, Mr Sarkozy said: "I ask you to trust us because we want to help you.

"France is ready to provide its guarantee, ready to mobilise its diplomatic service, its resources, its soldiers. You can trust France," he said, without specifying what role French soldiers could play.

Mr Sarkozy said that peace with the Palestinians was possible if Israel stopped all settlement activity and accepted Jerusalem as capital of two states.

"Create the conditions for movement," he told politicians, urging them to back a proposal for settlers to leave the West Bank for compensation and rehousing in Israel.

"There can be no peace without a halt to settlement activity," he said, while also condemning "terrorism" and telling Israel it was not alone in the face of what he said was a military Iranian nuclear programme.

Since taking office a year ago, Mr Sarkozy has broken rank with his predecessors by repeatedly branding himself a "friend of Israel", fostering closer ties with the Jewish state and repeatedly saying there can be no compromise on its security.

Israel has said it will press ahead with construction in settlement blocs it intends to keep in any final peace deal with the Palestinians. Palestinians fear such settlements will deny them a viable state in the West Bank.

In a welcoming address, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert praised Mr Sarkozy's role in bolstering Franco-Israeli ties but, in an apparent allusion to the dispute over settlement expansion, added: "Not always do we see eye to eye on every detail."

During his three-day state visit to Israel, which began on Sunday, Mr Sarkozy has said an Israeli-Palestinian deal could be reached soon, striking a far more optimistic note than most observers.

Israel has also opened indirect peace talks with Syria, but officials say not enough progress has been made for Mr Olmert and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to meet at the launch summit of Mr Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union project in Paris next month.

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