Egypt could send 150-200 trainers to Gaza - agency

CAIRO - Egypt is willing to send between 150 and 200 security experts to Gaza for six months to train a security force for the Palestinian Authority, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) said on Monday.

Technicians, security experts and administrators from European countries would work alongside the Egyptians during the training programme.

Egypt would rebuild police stations and jails in Gaza and provide the Palestinian security forces with radio equipment, vehicles and light weapons, the news agency said.

The MENA report, written by the agency's political editor, did not mention a time for sending the Egyptian trainers to Gaza. Arab media at the weekend said they would go on June 17 but Egyptian officials have not confirmed that.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher on Sunday said Egypt had offered to help train Palestinian security forces in preparation for a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza but did not say when an Egyptian delegation would go to begin the training.

In talks between Egyptian military intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this month, Egypt linked the training programme to political conditions.

Suleiman told Sharon that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak insisted that an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza should be the start of a complete withdrawal from the territory which Israel has occupied since the Middle East war of 1967, MENA said.

It should also be part of the Middle East peace plan known as the "road map" and the Israeli side should give a commitment to resume negotiations with the Palestinians and to "preserve the climate needed for the peace process to continue", it added.

Sharon has failed to persuade either his party or his cabinet to adopt the Gaza withdrawal plan in its present form, which requires only a partial withdrawal from the West Bank.

He presented the plan to the Israeli cabinet again on Sunday but avoided a showdown that could shatter his government.

After threatening at a seven-hour cabinet session to dismiss rebellious ministers opposed to the plan, Sharon adjourned the meeting until next week without taking any action or vote.

Suleiman was in Israel and the Palestinian territories last week as part of an Egyptian attempt to break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians.

- REUTERS