TEL AVIV, July 9, 2009 (WAFA)- A senior European Union official rules out any compromise with Israel over the issue of colonies, unless reached in the framework of a final-status agreement with the Palestinians, Akiva Eldar  wrote Thursday in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Robert Rydberg, head of the Middle East desk in the Swedish Foreign Ministry, stressed on Monday it was inconceivable for the international community to legitimize natural growth of the colonizer population, since all colonies beyond the 1949 Line of Armistice were illegal.

Rydberg, whose country holds the EU presidency, said the only conceivable compromise would come with Israeli and Palestinian agreement on borders in an all-encompassing final-status agreement between the two parties.

Speaking at a conference in Munich, Rydberg slammed the colonies as creating a new reality on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and spawning obstacles, and he said that roadblocks were intended mainly to protect the colonies rather than Israel proper within the Line of Armistice.

Rydberg said Israel's colonization policy did not build credibility among the Palestinian leadership and that President Mahmoud Abbas wanted to reach an agreement with Israel. He said the ideology that guides most colonizers is based on utter denial of the rights of Palestinians in the OPT.

Rydberg, who also serves as deputy director general of the Swedish Foreign Ministry and is a former ambassador to Israel, noted that the United States was interested in the EU's playing an active role in the peace process, and that the U.S. meticulously coordinates its positions with the EU and other members of the Quartet.

He said the EU was trying to 'close gaps' with Arab countries like Syria and Libya, in a bid to engage them in the efforts to make progress in resolving the Middle East conflict.