25/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 25 July the president of the European Council Matti Vanhanen provided a reply to Jacques Chirac's written request of 20 July in which he called for an increased role of the EU in resolving the crisis in Lebanon. Mr Vanhanen said that, “this affair is an absolute priority for the Finnish presidency and the European Union as a whole”. He underlined the fact that Javier Solana “is sparing no effort in view of political initiatives for resolving the crisis...