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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt : Israeli President Shimon Peres held talks on Thursday with President Hosni Mubarak on Middle East peacemaking and on Cairo's efforts to broker a prisoner swap with Hamas.
Peres, welcomed by Mubarak with pomp and ceremony in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said he would seek Egypt's help to win the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Gaza militants more than two years ago.
The two leaders discussed Israel-Palestinian peace talks which have been put on hold pending the formation of a new Israeli government following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation, Egypt's official MENA news agency said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is still in talks to set up a new coalition government after Olmert resigned last month to battle a string of corruption scandals.
Ahead of a joint press conference, MENA said the two men discussed "political developments in Israel and their effect on (the regional peace) process," MENA said.
Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks last November at a US-hosted conference with the ambitious goal of reaching a deal by the end of 2008, but most observers believe that is unlikely.
An Egyptian official said the meeting focused on a Gaza truce between Hamas and Israel brokered by Egypt in June and due to expire in December as well as Egyptian efforts to reconcile the rival Palestinian factions.
The two heads of state met in Sharm el-Sheikh, where Peres -- who unlike Mubarak holds a mainly ceremonial post -- was also due to hold talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi.
The octogenarian leaders discussed relations between the neighbouring states which signed the first ever Arab-Israeli peace treaty in 1979, MENA noted.
But their talks were to focus mainly on Egypt's attempts to secure the release of Shalit, who was seized by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.
"We need Egypt to support the release of the soldier. It is obvious that Egypt has a much easier dialogue with the forces holding Gilad," Peres told reporters before boarding a plane for Egypt.
The Israeli president said the meeting with Mubarak would also discuss the Islamist movement Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Egypt has in recent months assumed a crucial role in mediating between Israel and Hamas, which does not recognise the Jewish state. Israel, along with the United States and the European Union, blacklists Hamas as a terrorist group.
Hamas has demanded that Israel release about 1,400 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds who have been implicated in deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a senior Israeli defence official.
Israel and Hamas both agreed to a six-month Egyptian-brokered truce in and around the Gaza Strip on June 19, ending months of fighting.
Although both sides have largely observed the fragile agreement, little visible progress has so far been made in the talks on a prisoner exchange, with Israel voicing reluctance to free many of those demanded by Hamas.
Peres also said he and Mubarak would discuss Iran, the global financial crisis and a Saudi-brokered peace initiative with Israel stipulating Arab recognition of the Jewish state in return for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab land.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Wednesday that Peres would propose a deal, drawn up by his and Livni's offices, to negotiate with representatives of each Arab state in accordance with the Saudi peace initiative, adopted by the Arab League in 2002.
- AFP/ir
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