Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday held talks with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the current situation in Gaza Strip, which has been under intensive Israeli airstrikes in the past six days.
The meeting of the two sides was held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, reported the Egyptian state MENA news agency.
They discussed means of mobilizing efforts to put an end to the Israeli attacks, restore calmness and reopen border crossings of the Palestinian enclave, said the report.
They also reviewed the outcome of an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday.
During the Arab foreign ministers meeting, the Arabs decided to dispatch a ministerial delegation to the UN headquarters in New York to "drum up support for an Arab-proposed draft UN Security Council resolution" in a bid to halt the Israeli operation in Gaza, said MENA.
The so-called Operation Cast Lead of the Israeli troops entered its sixth day on Thursday and the death toll in the Palestinian enclave reportedly exceeded 400.
According to earlier reports, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that his country has no interest in extending the ongoing offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, Israel rejected a French proposal for a 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and Olmert insisted that Israel would not cease the offensive until its goals are realized, saying that "we did not go into the Gaza operation only to end it while rocket fire continues."
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)
