Cairo - Egypt has invited Israeli government officials and representatives of Palestinian groups from Gaza to Cairo for talks aimed at turning the ceasefire in Gaza into a more lasting truce.

Egypt will hold parallel talks with the Israelis and the Palestinians in Cairo on January 22, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a press release Monday.

There was no indication the Israelis and Palestinians would meet face-to-face.

Zaki said Egypt would press both sides to accept the terms of the initiative to end fighting in the Gaza Strip that President Hosny Mubarak presented on January 6.

The Egyptian president arrived in Kuwait on Monday for a long- scheduled Arab economic summit.

The summit will aim "to realize Arab interests in a way that ends the aggression and realizes peace for the Palestinian people," Saudi Arabia's official SPA news agency reported on January 13, following a meeting between the Egyptian president and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

European leaders, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gathered in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh Sunday to call for a lasting peace between Israel and the militant Palestinian Hamas movement, and for the delivery of humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Gaza. (dpa)