Israelis arrive in Egypt for ceasefire talks

CAIRO // Israeli representatives arrived in Cairo today for Egyptian-brokered talks on a ceasefire proposal after the UN Security Council failed to agree on action to end the escalating crisis in Gaza. Egypt's top diplomats said yesterday that talks would be held separately with representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on the Egyptian-French ceasefire initiative. Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, and Shalom Turjeman, a top aide to the Israeli prime minister, arrived this morning.

The official Egyptian news agency MENA said the delegates will discuss "the basic details on how to implement" the initiative. The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said there would be no meeting between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose arrival date in Cairo is uncertain. Israel's 13-day offensive in Gaza has killed hundreds of Palestinians, and with roughly half of the dead civilians, international efforts to broker a ceasefire have gained steam.

Aboul Gheit said Egypt will be asking Israel and Hamas for a temporary ceasefire "that would lead to a consolidated permanent ceasefire". Then, he said, negotiations would take place with the European Union and the Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza, on how to open the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian-Gaza border. Israel's government said earlier that it viewed the proposal positively but stopped short of acceptance. A Hamas official said the militant group, which rules Gaza, was not ready to either accept or reject the plan, which he claimed favoured Israel.

Meanwhile, the UN's most powerful body was divided yesterday on taking action. The US, British and French ministers, as well as the Arab negotiators, extended their stay in New York and scheduled another closed-door session this morning. Arabs are insisting on a legally binding resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops while the US, Britain and France want a weaker statement emphasising that a "durable ceasefire" requires guarantees on reopening border crossings and preventing arms smuggling to Hamas.

"There is no unanimity today on either of those text," the French UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current council president said after closed consultations, "and because we want to go forward in a common approach we have decided to continue our talks and our negotiations". The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met into the night with counterparts from key Arab and European nations over the Security Council's next step.

Afterwards she said: "We believe that there is still work to do." That view was echoed by the Saudi and Egyptian foreign ministers. In Paris, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy said the Palestinian Authority supported the ceasefire initiative, but the administration of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has no sway in Gaza. Mr Sarkozy did not mention Hamas. Israeli officials were non-committal on the plan.

"Israel welcomes the initiative of the French president and the Egyptian president to bring about a sustainable quiet in the south," the government spokesman Mark Regev said in Jerusalem. A Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said only that the group was considering the proposal, along with other ideas presented by Turkey and by Arab states. In a potential warning sign, Mr Hamdan complained that "the initiatives mostly favour Israel".

*AP