(3 Sep 2004)

1. Meeting venue, Chateaux Saint Gerlach, (near Maastricht)
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ben Bot, Dutch foreign minister
"I can only say that I hope that the situation...that there will not be too many tragedies."
3. Spanish FM Javier Solana
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Javier Solana, Spanish FM:
"Well I've been following the latest events, I've been in touch with administrator Labarov yesterday and today. I hope that everything will end up fine, in particular with the lives of all the children guaranteed."
4. Joschka Fischer, German FM arrives
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Joschka Fischer: German FM:
"I don't know now what's exactly going on..no more than everybody that is watching the tv. But definitely I mean we condemn these crime in the sharpest terms. I don't see any reason which legitimates that babies, children, were taken for hostages or killed. I mean this is an awful crime and it must be condemned."
6. Cutaway cameraman
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis:
"Negotiate..Trying to let people survive but not to kill people instead of save them."
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I have high hopes that first of all the two French journalists will be released. We are in contact with Mr. Barnier about that issue and I hope that he will be here tonight with good news. We have to wait and not come to quick conclusions."
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jack Straw:
"On the French hostages, we hope, hope against hope that these two French journalists will be released as a result of the very patient and firm negotiations of our colleague Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, and the French government. But we pray that will happen."
10. Cutaway policeman
11. Meeting venue, ministers sitting at tables having champagne

STORYLINE

European Union foreign ministers in the Netherlands for two-day talks appealed Friday for calm and gave their solidarity to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his efforts to resolve the school hostage crisis.

With no word yet on results of reports that Russian commandos stormed the school in Beslan, Russia where hundreds of hostages were being held, the ministers called for a peaceful solution.

"All of us ... express our profound solidarity," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "All our discussions will be overshadowed by the appalling situation."

"I can't find any justification for taking hostage children, toddlers and babies," said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis hoped the crisis could be resolved with the least number of lives being lost and appealed to Russian authorities to negotiate a solution.

"We have to be very careful," Valionis said, hoping there would be no repeat of the October 2002 hostage taking in a Moscow theatre, which left 129 of the 700 hostages dead after police stormed the building. "I don't know if we will repeat the same story as in the hostage taking in Moscow several years ago."

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country holds the EU presidency and who was hosting the weekend talks said ministers would discuss ways to cooperate better with Russia and other countries to counter terror.

"There is not one strategy (to fight terror). You have to update it constantly," he said.

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