Flurry of Arab diplomacy after Damascus summit

Apr 2, 2008, 10:23 GMT

Cairo - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said after talks with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak Wednesday that efforts to de-escalate the situation in the Gaza Strip were continuing but achieving no progress.

Abbas arrived in Cairo from Saudi Arabia where he briefed its leaders of his latest meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice early this week in Jordan.

Abbas announced after his talks with Rice that he would resume talks with Israeli leaders suspended in February in the wake of an Israeli assault on Gaza.

Hamas has been launching rocket attacks on Israeli towns, which Tel Aviv says should stop as a condition for its ending its frequent offensives on the territory.

'Egypt's efforts to stop rocket attacks and opening its border with Gaza are going on. They are merely an exchange of views. But nothing written has been reached,' Abbas said at a press conference after talks with Mubarak.

About his talks with Rice, Abbas said all parties, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the US, were committed to the idea that 2008 should be used to reach an agreement on the final issues of the conflict.

'But this does not mean that we will reach an agreement,' Abbas said, striking a note of caution.

Mubarak is expected to meet the King of Jordan Abdullah II later on Wednesday as part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts by the so-called moderate Arab countries to cement a united front against Iran's growing influence in regional affairs, especially in Iraq and Lebanon.

The Egyptian-Jordanian summit comes after leaders of both countries as well as King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia stayed away from the Arab summit of March 29, which was hosted by Syria, a close ally of Iran.