Israel sees progress on Gaza tunnels but wants more

By Aziz el-Kaissouni

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday Egyptian authorities had cracked down on smuggling across the border into the Gaza Strip in recent weeks but the measures were still not enough.

Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak discussed the smuggling issue at a meeting in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Gazans have been using tunnels to bring in money and weapons as well as high-value consumer goods such as cigarettes.

Egypt has discovered dozens of tunnels and recently started filling them with water, gases and explosives to prevent them being reused. At least eight Palestinians have died as a result.

"There is a certain improvement in this arena in the last few weeks. The measures have been tightened but the results are still far from satisfying because there are still smuggling tunnels," Barak told reporters after the talks.

"We raised our expectations that even more will be done in order to close it both on the ground and on the sea," he added.

Israel and the United States have been pressing Egypt for months to eliminate smuggling into Gaza as part of their campaign to isolate the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, and turn the Palestinian population against the Islamists.

Barak and Mubarak also talked about the status of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which the United States would like to see concluded this year.

"We wish to see a breakthrough in the negotiations with the Palestinians before the end of 2008, but I cannot tell you that I feel confident that it can be accomplished within this timeframe," Barak said.

Barak and Mubarak also discussed Egyptian efforts to mediate an exchange of prisoners between the Israelis and the Gazans, who have been holding an Israeli soldier since 2006.

"We hope it will not take very long before we see concrete intensive negotiations leading to his (the Israeli soldier's) release," Barak said.

(Reporting by Aziz el-Kaissouni, writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Robert Hart)