WASHINGTON, March 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will propose organizing a meeting between hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian leader said.

"Let us give the people some hope that peace could prevail ... I am to ask Arafat and Sharon to come and sit," Mubarak said in a live broadcast interview on CNN. "We will discuss some points, so as to make that atmosphere much better. And after that they can continue the discussions with ministers. It's a matter of good impression to the public opinion in Israel and in the Palestinian lands."

Asked about the feasibility of such an encounter, Mubarak said: "From the side of Arafat we can push, but I don't know if Mr. Sharon is going to respond to that or not."

The meeting would not be to end the crisis, Mubarak said in the CNN interview, "but to give the impression to both parties, to the people on both sides, to the people in the Arab world that there is a window of hope that we have to work with."

According to CNN, Mubarak said he "had a long talk with [Sharon] on the telephone. ... I told him that 'I would like to sit with you bilaterally.' I told him, 'I have no problem with you. There's no problem with Egypt and Israel. The main problem is the Palestinian problem and the one that is going on.'"

The Egyptian president further revealed that during the telephone conversation, Sharon had asked him to organize a "secret meeting" with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

"I sent the message to Crown Prince Abdullah. But I don't think that Crown Prince Abdullah, the country of the holy places [the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina], will be able to meet with Sharon unless there is peace." Mubarak said.

Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, has proposed supporting full Arab ties with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Israeli Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar said the Saudi peace proposal was unacceptable to Israel, though the Cabinet made no formal decision at its weekly meeting on Sunday.

Mubarak met first with Secretary of State Colin Powell and had a series of high-level meetings on tap. They met for 45 minutes at Blair House, the presidential guesthouse across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. They made no statement afterward, reported news agencies.

The Egyptian president told the Washington Times Monday that any U.S. attack on Iraq that kills innocent civilians would inflame lingering anti-American sentiment among the Arab public.

U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration considers Iraq a supporter of terrorism. Combined with President Saddam Hussein's alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, it is high on the U.S. list of potential targets, news agencies report.

"He's a threat to his neighbors, to the world, to his own people," said National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

But Rice said, "I can assure you the president has made no decision about the use of force against Iraq."

Mubarak also warned in an interview published in the Times newspaper that terrorists are still active in Afghanistan and have sleeper cells in the United States waiting to strike out.

"You have several organizations in the United States. Now they are all sleeping, keeping very quiet as if they are very innocent, until they feel there is some freedom. Then they are going to attack," he warned.

Mubarak called for extreme vigilance and close international cooperation against terrorism.

"The Afghanistan problem did not come to an end" with the defeat of the Taliban regime in Kabul, he said. "It needs a lot of work, a lot of cooperation. These people are very dangerous, and you have to watch them, even in the United States."

Mubarak said Egypt had played an important role in the international fight against terror since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. "We have given the Americans since September 11 a great deal of help, but this is not declared. Intelligence help, names, other things," he said, without elaborating.

In the interview, on the issue of Mideast peace, Mubarak largely pinned the blame on the current escalation of violence on Sharon. "The period with Sharon has been the most terrible violence since the peace process started ... in 1977," he said.

"We have never seen such violence and killing and using arms. I am afraid of more escalation," he said.