OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, November 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The chairman of Knesset’s influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday, November 18, rejected Egypt’s mediation in clinching a new ceasefire with the Palestinians, labeling Cairo “hostile factor” to Israel and the peace process.

"What's happening is particularly serious because a factor hostile to Israel has entered the Palestinian domain, and it is equally hostile, in my opinion, to the peace process and that is Egypt," said Yuval Steinitz, a deputy from the right-wing Likud party of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"If the new hudna allows Egypt to increase its influence within the Palestinian Authority and the ‘terrorists organizations’ such as Hamas then the long term strategic consequences will be more dangerous for Israel," Steinitz was quoted by AFP as saying.

He also accused Egypt of turning a blind eye to the smuggling of weapons across its border with the Gaza Strip.

The comments against Egypt, with which Israel has a peace treaty, were made on Israeli public radio.

Observers believe the statements of the chairman of the influential Knesset committee undermined efforts of Egypt, also under great external pressures to help secure a settlement to the long-standing conflict.

The Egyptian intelligence chief was expected to offer proposals that could then set in train a process culminating in talks between the Palestinian leadership and Israel and a possible invitation by the United States for new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei to travel to Washington, said well-placed sources.

The Egyptian plan is to also address internal security control dispute between Arafat and Qorei, each is seeking to have an upper hand for the key security bodies, Palestinian political sources told IslamOnline.net.

In the meanwhile, Arafat reportedly approved plans by the Egyptian envoy to send a delegation to Gaza for ceasefire talks with Palestinian factions.

The step would be ensued by his meeting with Israeli officials to probe the proposal, Qeiss Abu Leila, a politburo member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told IOL.

Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad suspected Israel’s possible compliance with the new ceasefire, citing that the previous similar agreement broke down with Israel’s continued aggressions and wave of assassinations of Palestinian resistance leaders.

"How can we talk about a new hudna at a time the U.S. and Israel exercise pressure on Palestinian factions to declare surrender, " Osama Himdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon told IOL.

“The Israelis were the first not to show commitment to the truce, and Sharon is now plunged into a political crisis that he could get out of with the new hudna,” said Khaled Al-Batsh, an Islamic jihad spokesman.

Israel gave no official response to the Egyptian proposal.

In the meanwhile, the Palestinian prime minister reiterated that his government sought to clinch a "comprehensive" ceasefire with Israel, hoping an expected summit with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon will be a chance to "open a new chapter" in relations between the two sides.

"No date has been fixed but there have been serious discussions about holding a meeting," Qorei told reporters in Ramallah.

"We are not refusing to hold this meeting but we want to be well prepared so we can follow it by announcing results to the Palestinian people and send the message that a chapter has been opened".

Sharon said during a visit to Rome late Monday that he was likely to meet Qorei, who won approval for his new government last week, in days.

"One can suppose that in the next few days the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian prime minister will meet," Sharon told Jewish leaders.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, on a visit to Brussels, also said Tuesday that talks were imminent.

"Both sides are working on it. It will take a few more days and it will be scheduled," he told reporters.

Official contacts between the two sides have been frozen for nearly three months amid the continuing violence of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Civilians on both sides should be spared, and an agreement on a ceasefire should be reached with clear conditions defining the commitments of both parties," Qorei told the session of parliament.