PARIS, Aug 28, SPA -- French President Jacques Chirac on Monday urged Israel to lift its blockade of Lebanon and said he was asking for an urgent meeting of international negotiators to discuss the broader question of bringing peace to the Middle East. Chirac, speaking to France's ambassadors at the Elysee Palace, said it was up to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to launch a political peace process after a weeks of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. «But already I call on Israel to lift the air andmaritime blockade that is seriously penalizing the Lebanese economy and preventing progress toward normalization,» Chirac said. Much of Chirac's wide-ranging speech focused on thesituation in the Middle East. If the world is resigned to the status quo in the MiddleEast, «that means risking a spiral of violence that wouldspin out of control,» Chirac said, calling for an urgentmeeting of the so-called Quartet of Middle East peacenegotiators _ Russia, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/385515