PARIS - Egypt did its best with the Palestinians and Israelis to help start the direct peace talks due to kick-start in Washington on Thursday and is urging both sides to take the chance to achieve their people's expectations, President Hosni Mubarak said Monday. "Egypt has worked hard with its regional and international partners to prepare for the direct Palestinian-Israeli talks. They should seize this chance," Mubarak told reporters during a press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris Monday. He added that peaceful co-existence had become an indispensable demand for all the peoples of the Middle East. Sarkozy said he proposed to hold a summit for the Euro-Med on November. "This proposed summit will focus on reaching peace in the Middle East," the French leader said. Mubarak, meanwhile, welcomed France's willingness to hold the conference to gather momentum for the expected independent Palestinian state. "I have agreed with President Sarkozy, as co-chairmen of the Euro-Med Union, to focus on means to push forward peace talks in the Middle East," Mubarak said. The Egyptian leader urged the US administration and the other members of the Quartet, international brokers for Middle East peace, to help push forward the peace process. "These international powers have some responsibility to bear," said Mubarak, who will confer with US President Barack Obama in Washington Monday. Thursday's meeting will launch the first direct negotiations between the two sides since the Palestinians broke off talks in December 2008 after Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip. Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan will attend the re-launch of negotiations. Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Sunday he had little hope that direct peace talks between Israel and Palestine will be successful. "We are hoping that talks will succeed but we are all very pessimistic about the viability of the peace process because of the past experience," Moussa said. In addition to Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and representative for the Middle East Quartet Tony Blair, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Mubarak will also attend the talks. Both Jordan and Egypt are pushing for the provisions of the Arab peace initiative, which offers Israel recognition by all Arab states if it pulls out from all Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 war.
