Britain Urges EU to Blacklist Hizbullah Military Wing

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague on Friday urged the European Union to place the military branch of Hizbullah on its list of "terrorist" organizations.

"I would like to see the EU designate and sanction the military wing of Hizbullah," Hague said in response to a question on arriving for talks with his EU counterparts.

But asked for his response on arriving in Paphos talks, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius appeared to suggest this was not possible now.

"There is a request but there are judicial considerations," he said

"An organization can be placed on the list of terrorist organizations when judicial proceedings have been filed against it as such, which is not the case currently."

Britain is one of few countries to have blacklisted either parts or the whole of the organization -- the Netherlands being the single EU country to have slapped a ban on the entirety of the movement.

Israel has been pressing hard for the entire organization to be blacklisted since a deadly bombing in Bulgaria in July, on the grounds that the group is now active on European soil.

But in July, the EU turned down a request by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

"There is no consensus for putting Hizbullah on the list of terrorist organizations," said Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Kozakou-Marcoullis said at the time that Hizbullah was an organization comprising a party as well as an armed wing and was "active in Lebanese politics" -- with representatives in the government and in parliament.