By Xinhua
Cairo : Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday called on the Palestinian and Israeli parties to show flexibility to reach an agreement on the Palestinian issue, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.
Mubarak made the remarks during his tour to the Upper Egyptian city of Qena, some 450 km south to Cairo, noting that there is hope as U.S. president George W. Bush mentioned that the two sides will reach an agreement.
The Egyptian president also urged the Palestinian parties to halt their interfighting and end their divisions, the MENA report added.
On the agenda of his expected talks with Bush in the Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh, Mubarak noted that the Palestinian problem would top the agenda as the main issue in the Arab area and the Middle East region, which needs a solution to the problem especially as it continues to get worse.
The issues of Iran, the Gulf, the security of the region and the Egyptian-U.S. bilateral relations will also be included in the agenda, Mubarak added, underlining that the bilateral relations face no problem.
Bush is expected to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday, the last leg of his eight-day trip to the Mideast aiming to push forward matters in the region and breathe life into the stalled peace process, especially in the wake of the Annapolis conference held in the United States late November.
The U.S. president’s visit was also meant to express Washington’s mounting concern over Iran and try to know Arab leaders’ stands towards Iran and whether the United States would form allies in the region in its row with Tehran.
After making his first presidential trip to Israel and the West Bank, Bush, who is now visiting Bahrain, said he believed a peace treaty would be signed within a year and called on Arab nations to reach out to the Jewish state.
Bush had also warned that Iran posed “a threat to world peace” and should not be allowed to develop the know-how to build a nuclear weapon, which was denied by Iran.
Starting from Jan. 8, Bush’s latest regional tour includes Israel, the Palestinian territories, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.