CAIRO (AFP)--Egypt said Gaza peace talks on Sunday with Hamas were "positive," with the Islamist movement agreeing on the need for an immediate halt to bloodshed in the besieged Palestinian territory.
"The discussion's results... were positive," the official news agency MENA quoted an Egyptian official as saying of the meeting in Cairo with the delegation, which included Imad Alami, a member of Hamas's political bureau.
The delegation has met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
"Opinions were united during the meeting on the importance of immediately stopping the shedding of Palestinian blood as soon as possible," the official said.
Hamas officials had said its delegation would ask for "clarifications" of Egypt's plans for a ceasefire to end Israel's 16-day-old military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed almost 900 lives.
The plan calls for a truce that would allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials and the resumption of Palestinian reconciliation talks.
The Egypt-Hamas talks were expected to resume on Monday, the official said.
Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television after the meeting that "there was some progress on some points" of the Egyptian proposal.
On Saturday, the Islamist movement's political leader, Khaled Meshaal, said Hamas would not accept a truce that did not end the blockade of Gaza and open all passages into the impoverished Palestinian enclave, including the Egyptian Rafah crossing.
Egypt has refused to permanently open the Rafah crossing, citing a 2005 agreement that required the presence of EU monitors and Palestinian Authority representatives at the passage.
Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas, which won a majority in 2005 parliamentary elections, ousted its Fatah rivals in a week of fighting in June, 2007.
At least 890 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have been killed since Israel began its offensive on December 27. Israel said it is trying deter Hamas from firing rockets into the Israel.
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Publié le 11 janvier 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones