Mubarak said the plan also calls for an urgent meeting between Israel and the Palestinians to discuss ways to resolve the conflict and provide necessary guarantees to ensure fighting doesn't erupt again.

There was no indication of the plan's chances. Sarkozy said at the news conference that he saw it as a “small hope'' for ending the Gaza violence.

Sarkozy said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to inform him of the initiaitve and was awaiting a response.

In Jerusalem, Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, told AP: ``We are holding off comments on that for the time being.''

At UN headquarters, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the proposal. “I express my support for the plan set in motion today by President Mubarak and President Sarkozy,'' said Abbas, who was in New York for a Security Council meeting on the Gaza crisis.

Israeli officials have said any cease-fire agreement must prevent further rocket attacks by Gaza militants and put in place measures to prevent the smuggling of missile and other weapons into the small Palestinian territory.

Rice told the Security Council meeting that the US understood the growing desire for a cease-fire. ``In this regard, we are pleased by, and wish to commend, the statement of the president of Egypt and to follow up on that initiative,'' she said.

But Rice added that any solution must address Israel's security. “There must be a solution this time that does not allow Hamas to use Gaza as a launching pad against Israeli cities. It has to be a solution that does not allow the rearmament of Hamas, and it must be a solution that finds a way to open (border) crossings so that Palestinians in Gaza can have a normal life,'' she said.

... contd.