ISTANBUL
TDN with wire disaaaaaes


A top Egyptian mediator said yesterday he had "high expectations" that a ceasefire deal could be reached between Israel and Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip.

Omar Suleiman Egypt's intelligence chief held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Tel Aviv on a truce according to Reuters. Asked by reporters about his expectations Suleiman held up his thumb in a gesture of optimism and replied in English: "High expectations." Barak said he hoped Suleiman's visit would "produce productive discussions."

Following talks with Suleiman in Cairo last month Hamas offered a six-month halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip if Israel were also to lift a crippling embargo on the coastal Palestinian territory. Washington has backed the mediation in hope of curbing violence including rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli raids in the territory which has threatened to derail peace talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the Gaza Strip Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he wished Suleiman success and called on Israel to "respond positively to the Egyptian efforts and to lift the siege and open the (border) crossings."

Fuel deliveries:

Also yesterday Israel authorized the resumption of fuel deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip where shortages caused the only power plant to shut down over the weekend an Israeli security official said.

The Nahal Oz border terminal which supplies most of the territory's fuel reopened on yesterday morning the official told Agence France-Presse.

Gaza's only electricity plant shut down on Saturday for lack of fuel Palestinian officials said.

The Gaza plant provides 30 percent of the impoverished territory's electricity with most of the rest directly supplied by Israel and a small amount coming from Egypt.

Israel cut off fuel shipments to the Hamas-ruled territory after Palestinian militants attacked Gaza's main Nahal Oz fuel terminal on April 9 killing two Israeli civilian employees. It later resumed the supply of industrial-grade fuel for the power plant but the plant had received no fuel for several days when it shut down.