Mubarak rules out new border breach

Madrid: Egypt will not allow its border with Gaza to be breached again by fighters seeking to escape an Israeli blockade, President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday in an interview published in Spain.

"It is a mistake to besiege the Palestinians but we will not accept that the border [with Gaza] be left open indefinitely. What happened will not be repeated," he told the daily ABC.

Mubarak, 79, rejected any responsibility for the violence between Egyptian police and the Palestinians at the border in the interview. "We did not give any order to shoot anyone," he said.

The closure of the border sparked protests from the Palestinians, with a demonstration turning violent late Monday with stone-throwing, exchanges of fire and tear gas. The clashes between masked Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces killed one person and wounded 59.

A security official said the Egyptian police rounded up about 2,000 Palestinians in Sinai on Tuesday.

In Cairo, Ahmad Abul Gaith, Egyptian Foreign Minister, urged Hamas to allow European Union observers to return to the Rafah crossing with the Gaza so that it could be legally reopened.