BRUSSELS, Feb 22, 2010 (AFP) - The European Union is "extremely concerned" at the use of European passports in the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai, the Spanish EU presidency said Monday.
"We are extremely concerned that European passports... can be used in a different manner for a different purpose," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was due to meet Moratinos and several fellow European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, seeking to reassure them over the use of British, Irish, French and German passports in the assassination of Mahmud al-Mabhuh in January.
"We (the EU ministers) are going to discuss it and I hope we will issue a statement expressing our concern about this situation," said Moratinos ahead of the talks.
Deputy Israel Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Saturday that he foresaw no crisis in Israel's relations with Europe over the use of foreign passports in the murder as it had nothing to do with it.
But Britain, Ireland, France and Germany have called in Israeli envoys for talks at their foreign ministries after passports from those countries were implicated in the killing.
Amid mounting diplomatic tension, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who will also meet Lieberman, has urged the Israelis to cooperate "fully" in investigating the incident.
While Miliband did not speak to reporters as he arrived for the EU talks, his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn said the culprits must be punished.
"We in Europe have to look at how we can better protect European passports," he added.
Al-Mabhuh, a founder of Hamas' armed wing, was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai on January 20.
Dubai police have released the names and photos of 11 suspects in Mabhuh's killing who entered the United Arab Emirates on European passports -- six from Britain, three from Ireland, one from Germany and one from France.
Those passports appear to have been falsified or stolen, as they belonged to what appear to be ordinary citizens shocked to learn of their being linked to the case.
