JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt next Monday to discuss a resumption of Middle East peace talks, a top Israeli official told AFP.
The two leaders "agreed during a telephone conversation last night [Monday] to meet next Monday in Sharm El-Sheikh," the Red Sea resort where Mubarak is convalescing after surgery last month.
"The two will discuss all sorts of matters, especially the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Egypt has been a long-time broker between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Direct Israeli-Palestinian talks were suspended in December 2008 after Israel launched a devastating military assault on the Gaza Strip.
According to the website of Israel’s Haaretz daily, Netanyahu told a meeting of activists from his Likud party on Tuesday that he had been told Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas intended to resume the peace talks.
"I was told the president of the Palestinian Authority intends to resume these talks, and I would be delighted if that could be firmed up next week," the site quoted the premier as saying.
After meeting US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated his desire for direct talks immediately, and said he expects to learn "in the next few days" whether negotiations will resume.
Tuesday’s news of Netanyahu’s planned Egypt visit follows quickly after Mitchell’s latest round of diplomacy aimed at reviving indirect "proximity talks" that were aborted as soon as they began in March.
Those were shelved after Israel announced it would build new homes in Jewish settlements in occupied east Jerusalem.
It also came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed "excellent" talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Washington, in stark contrast to a low-key welcome last month for the hawkish Netanyahu.
A former premier who came close to striking a peace deal with the Palestinians a decade ago, Barak basked in the Washington limelight.
He thanked President Barack Obama’s administration "for your open eyes to support the work to be done in the Middle East and all over the globe to push us all together or move together toward this peace."
State Department spokeswoman Philip Crowley said Clinton, Barak, Mitchell and Clinton’s top Middle East diplomat Jeffrey Feltman held a half hour of talks after teams from both sides met for 35 minutes.
Crowley refused to say whether progress had been made during Mitchell’s visit to the region or during the talks on Tuesday.
"We want to see them get into the proximity talks, and we’re not going to take anything for granted until that occurs," he told reporters.
But the mood was still strikingly upbeat.
Barak was granted full media exposure, in contrast to his low-profile meetings at the White House with Netanyahu last month, which broke down in the row over the east Jerusalem settlements and which is still unresolved.
The planned settlement expansion of 1,600 new homes infuriated the Palestinians and drew a harsh rebuke from Washington, in part because it came during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.
