Two days before International Women's Day, the newly installed 105-member panel debating the future shape of the European Union, was assailed Wednesday for being a male-dominated club.

The violation of women's rights is not restricted to race, ethnic group or religion, said Anna Karamanou, chairperson of the European Parliament's Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities Committee.

She used the occasion of International Women's Day - on Friday - to warn of the danger of creating yet another EU outfit without adequate input from women.

Karamanou wrote a letter to Valery Giscard D'Estaing, the former French president who heads the European Convention, for not having enough women on his panel that began work last week.

Out of a total of 105 members, the convention includes 16 women. There are only 2 women on the 12-member executive board.

"I find the unbalanced composition a very worrying symbol, as equality of women and men is a prerequisite for the building of a democratic and non-violent society," Karamanou told a women's rights conference.

The women's conference debated rights abuses across the world and heard speakers from across the EU and elsewhere insist that if more women were involved in government the world would be a more peaceful place.

European Parliament President Pat Cox agreed.

"It is disappointing to note that the share of women in the European Convention is smaller than the share of women in the European Parliament," he said in an interview.

(Agencies)