Egypt optimistic about Israel-Hamas truce

Occupied Jerusalem: A top Egyptian mediator said yesterday he had "high expectations" that a ceasefire deal could be reached between Israel and Hamas Islamists controlling the Gaza Strip.

Omar Sulaiman, Egypt's intelligence chief, held talks with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv on a truce, ahead of a meeting in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Asked by reporters about his expectations, Sulaiman held up his thumb in a gesture of optimism and replied in English: "High expectations."

A statement issued by the defence ministry after the meeting quoted Barak as telling the mediator: "Israel will have to take broader action in the Gaza Strip if the firing of Qassam rockets and mortar bombs does not stop."

Following talks with Sulaiman in Cairo last month, Hamas offered a six-month halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip if Israel were also to lift a crippling embargo on the coastal Palestinian territory.

Olmert sets conditions

Washington has backed the mediation in hope of curbing violence, including rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli raids in the territory, which has threatened to derail peace talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Olmert asked Sulaiman to tell Gaza fighters a truce would be conditional upon progress being made towards freeing a captive Israeli soldier.

Olmert also asked Sulaiman to tell the Palestinian factions they would have to stop smuggling arms into Gaza if they want Israel to accept the Egyptian-brokered proposals to halt the violence in the besieged territory.

In his talks with the Egyptian official, Olmert linked any truce to "progress in the negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit," captured by Gaza fighters in a 2006 cross-border raid, a senior Israeli official said.

"The prime minister asked Sulaiman to obtain the response of the Palestinian factions to the conditions," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Unless he receives a positive response, Olmert will not convene his powerful security cabinet to discuss and vote on a truce.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Esmail Haniya said he wished Sulaiman success and called on Israel to "respond positively to the Egyptian efforts and to lift the siege and open the [border] crossings." Another Hamas leader, Mahmoud Al Zahar, said he hoped Israel would "see reason" and that the group would receive the Israeli response to the truce proposal today.

Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas's Fatah faction last June, prompting Israel to step up economic sanctions and Egypt to shut its frontier with the coastal enclave.

"We see our relationship with Egypt as one of the central foundations of regional stability, and a pillar of our foreign policy, and we are always eager to engage with the Egyptian government," Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said.