The foreign ministers of Spain, France and Italy will visit Gaza this month to check on Israel's plan to ease a blockade of the territory, Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman last month invited Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to lead a European Union delegation to the Gaza Strip after mounting international pressure in the wake of a May 31 Israeli commando raid that killed nine Turkish activists aboard a flotilla of aid ships on a blockade-busting bid.

The ministers have a visit to Gaza in their calendars for this month to check how the internal process of lifting of the blockade is going, Zapatero told a joint news conference with visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Frattini will be accompanied by his Spanish and French counterparts, Miguel Angel Moratinos and Bernard Kouchner, Zapatero said, but did not indicate the exact date of the visit.


Agencies