European Commission President Romano Prodi on Wednesday called for an international conference on the Middle East to bring together the United States, the European Union, moderate Arab countries, Russia, Israel and the Palestinians.

"It is clear that previous mediation has failed and we need new mediation," Prodi told a press conference.

"We need the US, the EU, the UN, moderate Arab states, the Israelis, the Palestinians and Russia around the same table."

Prodi, who was to attend an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers on the Middle East in Luxembourg later Wednesday, said "there can be no military solution to the crisis...Negotiations are the only way forward.

"The situation is growing worse and worse and we fear there will be more and more casualties," he said.

"Both sides must comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1402, which calls for an immediate cessation of all

acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction...Both sides have to move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire."

Prodi stressed that Israel "must withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities, including Remallah."

And he made clear that "the Palestinian Authority, under its elected leader Mr (Yasser) Arafat, is the only valid interlocutor for Israel."

In a thinly veiled reference to an Israeli offer of a "one-way ticket" for Arafat out of his besieged West Bank headquarters, Prodi said he had discussed it with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "in recent days."

"Sharon told me if I wanted to I could come in and take Arafat out, alone," said Prodi. "I answered that Arafat will leave when he wishes, of his own will and volition. He has chosen to stay. He has even said he was prepared to be a martyr.

"I have to take note," said Prodi, "that after recent steps (by Israel to isolate and sequester Arafat) there has been a tendency for (Arafat's) power to increase rather than decrease...The fact that Arafat is being held prisoner does not

reduce his influence."

Prodi also hit out at recent attacks on Jewish cemeteries and synagogues in Europe, saying, "Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, can justify the cowardice acts of barbarism..."

EU member states, he said, "must do everything that is in our power to resist anti-Semitism at home...Europe must not tolerate racial discrimination in any form whatsoever."

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have prevented the Spanish presidency of the European Union from holding telephone talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Wednesday.

Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member EU, tried four times Sunday to call Arafat but was thwarted at each attempt, the newspaper said.

When seeking an explanation from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Spanish leader was told: "Mr Aznar, you are trying to contact the head of the terrorists," according to the report.