European countries ready to study help on Gaza arms smuggling

European countries pledged on Monday to study ways to prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip, including by providing intelligence, specialised equipment and training security forces.

Israel has said that Islamic militant group Hamas used tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to bring weapons into the enclave, where its offensive killed 1,300 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,000 others.

Israel said it halted the fighting, launched with the declared aim of stopping cross-border rocket attacks, after winning commitments from the United States, European powers and Egypt to crack down on the flow of arms into Gaza.

"The EU welcomes the commitment of the United States to contribute to stopping arms smuggling into Gaza and is prepared to identify ways to cooperate in such efforts," foreign ministers from the 27-state bloc said in a joint statement.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he had won approval from Egypt to send a five-strong team of specialists to its side of the border to assess possible action.

An internal EU paper -- which diplomats said was backed by France, Germany, Britain and others -- proposed that help could include training of security forces, provision of necessary specialised equipment and the creation of alternative incomes.

The paper said the EU was ready to act in coordination with Washington and regional players but gave no specific timeframe for when it could start supplying such help.

France is already sending a naval mission to the region, and there are talks among EU states about the possibility of a further maritime mission in the Red Sea.

But a senior Hamas official said on Sunday that security measures aimed at stopping Palestinian groups from rearming in Gaza will not prevent the flow of weapons.

Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, said Palestinian fighters had begun to restore their arsenal after a cease-fire halted Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip.