Egypt seals gaps in border, Hamas chief in Cairo

By Yusri Mohamed

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt called in police reinforcements and sealed gaps at the breached border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal met Egyptian officials in Cairo for talks centered on the "facilitation of movement" and the entry of Palestinians on the border. A senior Hamas official said no agreement had been reached but progress had been made.

A senior Egyptian security official said Egypt had given orders to security men to start taking more restrictive measures and was hoping to minimize friction with Palestinians by implementing an incremental closure of the border.

The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said there was still no official word on when the border would be completely sealed.

Egyptian forces brought cement and sandbags to seal gaps in the border just over a week after Hamas militants blasted it open to let tens of thousands of Gazans cross to Egypt in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade, witnesses said.

Egypt also started blocking Palestinian vehicles from crossing into Egypt although it was allowing supply-laden Egyptian trucks to enter Gaza to drop off goods, witnesses said.

One security source said around 50,000 Palestinians had crossed into Egypt on Thursday, and another 20,000 were staying with relatives in Rafah and nearby towns.

Egypt was silent on the talks with Meshaal, who Arab media had said was expected to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss restoring order at the Gaza-Egypt frontier.

But senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar, speaking after Meshaal's meeting, told al-Jazeera television that while no agreement had been reached, some progress had been made.

"Hamas does not object to a shared administration of the Rafah crossing with Abbas, on condition that the Palestinian Authority does not succumb to Israeli pressure," he said, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas met Egypt's president on the same issue on Wednesday.

ABBAS HAS BACKING FOR CROSSING

Abbas has rejected Hamas demands for control of the border and urged the Islamist group on Wednesday to "end its coup" in Gaza, which Hamas seized control of in June.

Abbas has already won U.S., European and Arab backing to take control of the Rafah crossing, to the exclusion of Hamas.

But it is unclear how Abbas, the Fatah leader whose authority is now limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would be able to exert control over Rafah given opposition from Hamas, whose forces have command on the ground.