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Barak: Egypt has key role in return of Shalit By Amos Harel Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Egyptian President Husni Mubarak yesterday that Israel views Egypt as a central factor in bringing home kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was abducted by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in 2006. Egyptian-mediated talks with Hamas for his release have apparently reached a standstill. Advertisement "We hope it will not take very long before we see concrete, intensive negotiations that lead to [Shalit's] release," Barak said at the meeting in Alexandria. He stressed that bringing back the abducted soldier is one of the main items on Israel's national agenda. The pair also discussed the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and efforts by Egypt to curb arms smuggling into the coastal strip. Barak said that Egyptian authorities had cracked down on cross-border smuggling into the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, but that the measures were still not enough. "There has been a certain improvement in this arena in the last few weeks. The measures have been tightened but the results are still far from satisfying, because there are still smuggling tunnels," Barak told reporters after the talks. "We have raised our expectations, and expect even more to be done in order to shut it [smuggling] down by land and by sea," he added. Regarding the cease-fire, Barak told Mubarak that Israel will not accept any violations, even sporadic or isolated ones. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Voice of peace silenced Israeli peace pioneer Abie Nathan dies aged 81. DeadSeaScrolls.com World's oldest Bible fragments to be available online.

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