Israel is taking seriously an international proposal for a Gaza ceasefire that would involve a pledge of foreign forces to prevent Hamas from rearming, Israeli officials and diplomats said on Tuesday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a deal to end Israel's offensive in Gaza was “not far” away, but gave no details. “I'm convinced that there are solutions. We are not far from that. What is needed is simply for one of the players to start for things to go in the right direction,” he told reporters during a visit to French UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Middle East envoy Tony Blair said major powers agreed on the need for security measures on Gaza's border with Egypt - which Israel calls the Philadelphi corridor - to stop the arms flow. “What is being talked about is a credible plan to stop the smuggling,” Blair told a small group of reporters in Jerusalem. Blair said Sarkozy, the European Union and the United States all agreed that new anti-smuggling measures would be needed to clinch a ceasefire, but gave no details on what these might be. EU officials said they may send a special force, including military engineers to the border with equipment to work with Egypt to combat the tunnels. Blair said “I think it is very difficult unless there is a significant advance for the Israelis on security, which allows a significant advance in opening up Gaza to the outside world.” Obama breaks silence Obama said he was sticking by his campaign pledge that “at the beginning of our administration, we are going to engage effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict that existed in the Middle East. However in a move different from before Obama did say that “The loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern for me.” Hamas in Cairo As fighting intensifies in the Gaza strip, a Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo to discuss an Egyptian proposed ceasefire with Israel after 10 days of bombing. The talks with the Palestinian delegation, headed by Emad Al-Alami and Mohammed Nasr from Hamas's Syrian-based political leadership, represent the first such contact since fighting began but hopes of a truce appear dim. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday invited Israel “without delay” to discuss security on the Egypt-Gaza border, Sarkozy said after talks with Mubarak. Egypt has a peace deal with Israel and negotiated a previous six-month truce which expired on Dec. 19. Arab nations pressed the case for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the onslaught, but Israel rejected ceasefire calls by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders. “Europe must open its eyes,” President Shimon Peres said. “We are not in the business of public relations or improving our image,” he said in response to a comment by an EU delegation member telling him Israel's international image is suffering. Mark Regev spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said preventing Hamas from rearming was cruicial to any future deal. “Preventing a Hamas arms build-up is the necessary foundation of any new calm arrangement,” Regev said, adding that Hamas used the previous six-month ceasefire brokered by Egypt to double the range of its rockets from 20 km to 40 km. Hamas has demanded a lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza which it says is “starving Gaza.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to New York Tuesday for consultations at the United Nations to “further efforts” on a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, a US official said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Tuesday reiterated that the condition for an immediate ceasefire was that it should be “durable, sustainable and not time-limited.”
