Mubarak says Hamas ready to halt terror

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that the continued cycle of terror attack followed by Israeli retaliation must stop, and the Hamas was at the point were it was ready to stop its attacks. Mubarak urged Israel to resume negotiations immediately with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's emissaries.

He added that Arafat himself should not pose a problem for Israel, since the talks would be held between envoys of both sides, and not the leaders themselves.

In a conversation with Israeli correspondents who accompanied Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on a one-day trip to Cairo, Mubarak said that since the Sharon government took power, Israel does not have "a vision, a peace plan or a solution."

The Palestinians would be able to continue their struggle for another 15 years, Mubarak added, saying that their suicide attacks were proving highly effective. The Egyptian president added that while his country does not have a peace plan of its own, he was willing to do everything he could to advance the cause of peace.

Peres told his host that Israel expects Egypt to help work out differences between Israel and the Palestinians and to push forward the Mideast peace process.

"It is impossible for Israel and the Palestinians to overcome the current stalemate without Egypt's help and intervention", Peres said at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, after meeting with Mubarak in Cairo.

Peres expressed sympathy with the suffering of the Palestinian people, but blamed the Palestinian Authority for turning down previous peace overtures from Israel and doing little to end Palestinian violence.

Peres and Maher said that their countries had agreed to pursue political negotiations as the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring about a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. They also agreed that the conflict could not be resolved militarily, and stressed the need to put an end to the circle of violence and return to the negotiating table.

For his part, Maher said "the Palestinian territories are still being occupied by Israeli forces, which subjects the Palestinian people to closure and humiliation -- a result of actions clearly condemnable and not conducive to a solution of the problem."

"When one speaks about the violence, one should not forget the violence of a strong army using weapons against a civilian population," Maher added. "It is very clear that what has happened to the Palestinians by the Israeli army and sometimes by the (Jewish) settlers is certainly something that we have strongly condemned," he stressed.