Officials: Barak, Livni to meet Mubarak on Gaza

Israeli officials say Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt over the next two days.

The officials say the meetings will deal with Egyptian efforts to work out a cease-fire between the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip and Israel. The Israeli officials say the talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh will also focus on Egyptian efforts to prevent arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory.

The officials spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity since the meetings had not yet been officially announced.

Livni will meet with Mubarak on Sunday in Sharm, a day before Barak's meeting in the resort town on Monday. Livni and Mubarak will be joined by Jordan's King Abdullah. Livni is expected to update the two leaders on progress in Israel-Palestinian Authority talks on the core issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, and final borders. The three are also expected to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and the political crisis in Lebanon.

Egypt has been trying for weeks to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce.

Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently told both Egyptian officials and American President George Bush that Israel would wait a few more days, but if the truce talks failed to yield an agreement by then, it would step up its military operations in Gaza.

Despite these threats, however, Israel seems to prefer a truce to military escalation. If the Egyptians conclude a cease-fire deal, and especially if it includes significant progress toward the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Israel would agree to a several-month truce, officials said.

Cairo reduced its involvement in the indirect negotiations with Hamas to a minimum after the militant Islamic group took over the Gaza Strip last June, and the talks subsequently stalemated.

Palestinian sources said Hamas was likely to speed up the talks on Shalit immediately after obtaining a truce, but would not link the two issues, as Israel is demanding.

	Defense Minister Barak and Egyptian Pres. Mubarak in Egypt last December. (Reuters)