In a joint statement to the press, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that his Egyptian counterpart called "without delay" the Israelis to discuss the issue of border security, "perhaps in the coming hours."

"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.

It was, in the words used several times by Nicolas Sarkozy during the tour he made on Monday and Tuesday in the region, that someone take the first step.

The French president has convinced the "raise" to Egypt this first step by committing to make waterproof "Philadelphia corridor" which marks the border between Egypt and southern Gaza Strip.

Stopping the smuggling of weapons to the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement across this border, peppered with a series of tunnels, is one of the guarantees demanded by Israel.

The French presidency said he was confident that the effort and asked the Egyptian president. "It is not easy for Mubarak to discuss with Ehud Olmert, the Arab street will not accept it," says one at the Elysee.

Hosni Mubarak will be better able to move these negotiations if it gets in return that the Israelis opened the crossings between the Gaza Strip, says on the same source.

The head of state also called Egyptian stopping rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli territory.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who had a first interview Monday with Hosni Mubarak before meeting in the evening the Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, said that Ehud Olmert had informed the Egyptian initiative.

"BRING IN THE COUP BACHAR"

It "will not react," added the French president. "I am confident that the reaction of the Israeli authorities will consider putting an end to the operation they launched on Gaza, ie not simply a cease-fire, but a withdrawal. "

That is what Nicolas Sarkozy had agreed Monday evening in Jerusalem with Ehud Olmert, says it at the Elysee.

In a third time, the French president, whose country currently chairs the Security Council of the UN, would request that the Council does not require resolution on the conflict in Gaza.

"The Israelis are opposed to any declaration that would equate Israel and Hamas," stresses the Elysée.

In the French view, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that Nicolas Sarkozy met Tuesday morning in Damascus, has a role to play. "He makes the link with Hamas," stresses the Elysée. "So it was really put Bashar on the ball."

"Bashar has agreed to talk provided that the opening of crossing points between Gaza and Israel," adds on the same source.

France also put on Turkey, a Muslim country which has good relations with the Hebrew state. "The Turks are pushing Israel to appeasement," says friends of Nicolas Sarkozy.

According to the French head of state, a collaborator of Hosni Mubarak has been in contact with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas - that Nicolas Sarkozy had himself met Monday in Ramallah, West Bank - to inform this plan.

"The Egyptian proposal was important that this person is humiliated, that nobody 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, "he said.

Finally, according Elysée, Nicolas Sarkozy spoke in Damascus the fate of Franco-Israeli Sergeant Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas, asking the caller Bashar al-Assad a "proof of life", stressing that it was " a personal matter. "

Emmanuel Jarry, edited by Jean-Loup Fiévet