Cairo  - Israel's new government will continue negotiations with the Palestinian government and believes that reaching a peace agreement before the end the year is possible, Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Thursday.

"We hope to see an independent Palestinian state to live side by side with Israel in peace and security," said Peres in a press conference during an Israeli-Egyptian summit in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Peres said the chances of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinian government were high, without giving specifics.

Cairo - The US will not review its policy of isolating Syria because Damascus has not moved far enough to allay US fears over its role in the Middle East, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch, said in an interview Wednesday.

Syria's move to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon is "a start" but is not enough to convince Washington to change its policy, Welch told the pan-Arab London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

In mid-October Syria initiated diplomatic ties with Lebanon for the first time since independence 60 years ago.

Cairo - Egypt's criminal court postponed on Saturday a hearing in the murder charges against business tycoon and lawmaker Hisham Talaat Moustafa to mid-November to allow for further investigations into the case.

Moustafa is accused in the murder of Lebanese singer Suzane Tamim.

A former chairman of Egypt's largest publicly traded real estate company and a member of the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, Moustafa was arrested on September 2 and charged with ordering and paying for the killing.

Cairo  - Egypt's criminal court postponed on Saturday a hearing in the murder charges again

Cairo- Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak has suggested two solutions to the issue of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms on the Lebanese border, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting in Cairo with Mubarak, he said: "The first suggestion is using Egypt's international relations, especially with the US, to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Shebaa Farms."

Cairo - Egyptian police on Tuesday shot dead an Eritrean migrant attempting to enter Israel illegally via Egypt's Rafah border crossing, security sources said.

Police killed Khasoum Tasfa, 40, and injured Barham Majin, also from Eritrea. The two men had attempted to cross the border at Rafah on the 250-kilometre Egyptian-Israeli frontier.

Since of the beginning of 2008, Egyptian police have arrested some 480 illegal immigrants. Eritreans make up the largest group, with 210 arrested, and Sudanese the second-largest, with 121 arrested. At least 36 women and seven children have also been detained.