SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Egyptian construction of an underground barrier on the border with the Gaza Strip will be completed "by the end of the summer," a security official said on Monday.
Egyptian authorities started building the underground steel barrier last year in a bid they said to stop the smuggling of goods and weapons into the Gaza Strip via a network of underground tunnels.
"We will close all the tunnels, for sure," the official told a small group of reporters in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
"We hope to finish by the end of summer," he said when asked when the construction of the barrier would be completed.
"It’s our right, it’s legitimate. We will have goods delivered to (Gazans) over ground. It has to happen before our eyes," he said.
The question of Gaza and specifically the Israeli-imposed blockade of the enclave was at the center of talks between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and US Vice President Joe Biden in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.
In a statement following the talks, Biden said the United States was looking for new ways to deal with blockaded Gaza.
On Tuesday, Egypt announced it was indefinitely opening the Rafah border, the only gateway to Gaza that bypasses Israel.
The move came after raid by Israeli commandos on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip which killed nine people.
Egypt had come under increasing regional criticism for the construction of the barrier. Palestinians in the impoverished enclave rely on the tunnels to bring in many basic goods, but Israel accuses the Islamist Hamas movement of also using them to smuggle in weapons.
