Tel Aviv  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected a reported French proposal to observe a 48-hour truce in Gaza, with a spokesman saying Tuesday the caretaker premier believes such a move would be a "mistake."

An Israeli defence official, earlier told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had received a proposal from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to unilaterally end its assault on Gaza for 48 hours, allowing Hamas to suspend its rocket and mortar attacks as well.

Barak had passed the proposal on to Olmert, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

She said Israel may debate the proposal in a session of its security cabinet Wednesday and that if it indeed did so, military and defence experts would likely be asked to give their opinion.

But Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said that although Israel would work "energetically" with foreign government and international organizations to allow a "constant flow" of aid into the strip, it would not suspend its offensive before its goals were achieved.

"Giving Hamas a rest period to re-group and rearm, reducing the pressure on that organization, would be a mistake," he told dpa. (dpa)