Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris on Monday on a two-day visit to the Middle East in a unilateral attempt to negotiate a ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza.

Traveling in his capacity as co-president, with Egypt, of the Union for the Mediterranean, Sarkozy is scheduled first to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

He will then travel on to West Bank city of Ramallah to hold talks with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, before meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late Monday in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, the French president will travel to Damascus for talks with President Bashar al-Assad before ending his trip in Beirut, where he is to have discussions with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

On Sunday, Sarkozy held phone conversations about the conflict with Olmert, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

However, Sarkozy's chances of negotiating a quick end to the fighting appear very slim.

Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner told France Info radio on Monday, "our operation will continue. I will not tell you for how many hours or days it will continue, but it will continue until we have attained our goal."

He added that as long as Israeli citizens remained under threat of Hamas rockets "conditions do not exist" for a ceasefire.

France has severely criticized Israel's ground assault against Gaza as well as Hamas' continued shelling of Israeli territory, which provoked the Israeli offensive.

In an interview with Lebanese newspapers, Sarkozy said Hamas "bears a heavy responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza." (dpa)