Netanyahu to hold talks with Mubarak in Egypt Tuesday

Jerusalem, Dec 27: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to travel to Egypt Tuesday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak.

Netanyahu announced the trip in his weekly cabinet briefing in Jerusalem Sunday, saying the talks were at his request.

"We have an interest in moving the peace process forward in various ways," he said. He intends to continue the "important dialogue" with Egypt, Netanyahu added.

Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman visited Israel for talks last week. Egypt and Germany are mediating a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the radical Islamist Palestinian group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu said there was still no agreement between the two sides. Israel Radio reported that the premier said he did not know whether an agreement would be reached.

Trade Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer would accompany the premier to Cairo.

Hamas has yet to respond officially to Israel's latest proposal for a possible deal that was presented by German mediators in Gaza late last week.

Hamas is demanding the release of around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured by militants in mid-2006.

Israel has indicated it wants a tenth of the prisoners it is being asked to release to be sent to the Gaza Strip or abroad rather than return home to the West Bank.