Israeli mini summit meets

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday presided over a meeting of the Israeli mini-cabinet on security and political affairs. Present at the meeting were Israeli ministers Yitzhak Mordechai, Ariel Sharon and Natan Sharansky.

Israeli radio reported that Netanyahu informed the three ministers of results of talks he held earlier in the day with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on redeployment of Israeli troops in the West Bank. In the press conference he held later in the day in Jerusalem, Netanyahu described his talks with Egyptian President Mubarak as objective and practical.

He added that Israel and Egypt "seek to achieve a genuine progress in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authority."

But he claimed that the US has pledged in a message addressed by former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher following the signing of Hebron accord that Israel is to be the only side which decides on the volume of redeployment.