Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has rejected the idea of an Egyptian security role in the Gaza strip, describing it as a trap that would lead to conflict with the Palestinians and possibly the Israelis.
"It's a trap set for us because we would find ourselves in a situation of confrontation with the Palestinians," he told the Paris newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published on Monday.
"And, if there is a problem, we could even find ourselves in conflict with the Israelis," he added.
Israeli security sources said last month that Israel had held talks with Egypt about ceding security control to the Egyptians over a corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border as part of a plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt has been a key mediator in the Middle East conflict since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom is expected to discuss Gaza security in talks in Cairo later this week.
One Israeli idea has been that the Egyptians take control of the so-called Philadelphia Road, which runs along the border and has been a major flash-point between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen during a more than three-year-old uprising.
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