Cairo  - A Hamas delegation in Egypt for talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Tuesday said no progress had been made in negotiations on a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip.

"Hamas and Egypt are agreed that an indefinite truce is impossible at the moment," Mohammed Nasr, a senior member of the Hamas delegation in Cairo, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"We are negotiating the length of the truce, the opening of the border crossings, and conditions for reconciliation talks with Fatah." Talks would continue on Tuesday night, he said.

Cairo  - A Cairo court on Monday suspended a November verdict from a lower court barring Egypt from exporting gas to Israel.

In suspending the ruling, judges from Cairo's Supreme Administrative Court found that the lower court did not have jurisdiction over the case and ruled that decisions on exports to countries to the east of the Mediterranean, including Israel, were within the government's purview, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported.

Cairo  - Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is due to meet Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak Monday for a new round of talks on establishing a long-term ceasefire in Gaza.

His visit comes amid reports of a significant progress in negotiations and Israeli threats of a "fierce and disproportionate" response to continued rocket fire on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Cairo  - At a time when newspapers around the world are falling on hard times, Egypt's august al-Shorouq publishing house did something few would have expected: it launched a new, independent daily.

"When the first issue of al-Shorouq newspaper is circulated, the reader will get a different taste of modern journalism," Salama Ahmad Salama, a respected Egyptian columnist and now head of al-Shorouq's editorial board, promised the readers in his opening editorial on Sunday.

Cairo  - Egypt will host an international conference on March 2 to raise funds for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip recovering from the destruction caused by a
22-day Israeli offensive, Egypt's foreign ministry said Friday.

"The ministry has started intensive diplomatic contacts to convene the conference," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said.

The foreign ministers meeting will tackle means to secure funds for rebuilding the enclave, as well as securing urgent humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.

Cairo  - Egypt Friday accused the Hezbollah leader in lebanon, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, of being "an agent of Iran" after he attacked Egypt in statements on Thursday.

"Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," said an unnamed Egyptian official.