The Middle East peace conference called by U.S. President George W. Bush lacks a framework, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Consensus on issues including the principles of Palestinian statehood should be reached before the meeting, the semi-official Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Youm quoted Mubarak as saying.

"Egypt supports the necessity of consensus around all the outstanding cases for political settlement before the international meeting called for by President Bush is held," Mubarak said.