Washington  - Former British prime minister Tony Blair, the top Mideast envoy for a consortium of world powers, expressed full support Tuesday for Egypt's role in mediating the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas.

In an interview with broadcaster CNN, Blair said that the most important goal was to come up with "a credible plan to stop the smuggling" of weapons from Egypt into Gaza to Hamas militants.

"I think the Egyptian initiative is the only game in town to bring this to a conclusion sooner rather than later," Blair said.

He was in Washington to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from outgoing US President George W Bush.

Egypt has taken the lead with a proposal for an immediate ceasefire by Israel and all Palestinian factions to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians. It would ease the blockade of Gaza and tighten security to prevent weapons-smuggling into the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.

The weapons, which Israel says are supplied by Iran, are smuggled through tunnels under the Egyptian border and have enabled Hamas to launch rocket fire at ever greater distances into Israel.

Israel started airstrikes on Gaza on December 27 and sent in ground troops on January 3. By late Tuesday, Palestinian medical sources said that 947 people had been killed in Gaza and more than 4,300 wounded.

Blair, who met Monday in Egypt with President Hosny Mubarak, is special envoy for the so-called Mideast Quartet - the European Union, the United Nations, the US and Russia - which has been working for years on a Middle East peace settlement.

"At the moment this is the delicate and sensitive stage," Blair said. "My own view is that Israel will accept a credible plan to stop the smuggling."

On Tuesday in Berlin, Germany's Interior Ministry said that German police and security experts would travel in the coming days to Egypt to help secure the border into Gaza.

August Hanning, the state secretary in the ministry, said the move would fulfill a request from the Egyptian government "to support securing Egypt's border area with German expertise."

Details of the German mission were not available. Sources close to the ministry said it could involve advice on either stopping the smuggling or setting up controls in the hinterland.

Active police help was not planned. (dpa)