"President Mubarak calls without delay, including the Israeli side, to discuss the issue of border security, perhaps in the coming hours," said the French president in a joint statement with Hosni Mubarak, after their second interview in forty-eight hours in Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea.

"I have very specific elements that allow me to say that an Israeli delegation will meet a delegation of Egypt without delay to discuss the security issue," he added.

In that statement, Mr. Mubarak has also proposed a "ceasefire" that would allow humanitarian aid to be channeled in the Gaza Strip, while Israeli operation cost the lives of At least 660 Palestinians since its launch on December 27.

He also called on rival Palestinian factions, including Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas to resume reconciliation talks.

On a rather optimistic, Nicolas Sarkozy said he was "hopeful that the reaction of the Israeli authorities (would) consider putting an end to the operation they have incurred on Gaza, in not simply say the cease-fire but a withdrawal. "

"The Egyptian proposal was important that this person is humiliated, no one loses face, it is not a return to the status quo ante, since the Egyptians are ready to work on border security, since pressure is for no more rockets leave Gaza, "said the French head of state.

The opening of Israeli-Palestinian talks on security at the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip permits, according to Paris to see a softening of the position of the Hebrew state, which refuses truce proposed by the particular France and Europe without assurance of a cessation of firing on Palestinian territory.

The Israelis see this area as the main route of supply ammunition Islamists of Hamas.

Before his meeting with Hosni Mubarak and his return to France, Nicolas Sarkozy had another shot of his playing card by calling on Syria to put pressure on its ally Hamas.

"I am convinced that Syria can play an important role in finding a solution. The President (Bashar) al-Assad can play a role. He has to convince Hamas to make the choice of reason, peace and of reconciliation "between the Palestinians," said Sarkozy at the end of a meeting with his Syrian counterpart in Damascus.

Principal architect of the return to Syria on the international scene, Nicolas Sarkozy clearly on using the Syrian leader to pressure the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas Khaled Mashaal, who lives in exile in Damascus.

Before the Syrian leader who compared Gaza a "concentration camp" and denounced a "war crimes" of Israel, the French president also hoped the rapid creation of humanitarian corridors with Gaza.

"I am convinced that there are solutions, we're not far away. It is just one of the players began to get it going in the right direction", said Mr Sarkozy after submitting his wishes Helmets French blue of the UN Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) At Tiri in the extreme south of Lebanon to the border with Israel.

At the United Nations, the Security Council, warned that the Arab countries to end the conflict, to discuss once again the Israeli offensive but without being able to adopt any resolution. Several heads of Arab and Western diplomacy, which the American Condoleezza Rice, were to attend the meeting.