FACTBOX: Emerging Gaza ceasefire plan

(Reuters) - Israel, Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have entered talks with Egypt to try to iron out the terms of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Western diplomats predicted a difficult negotiation ahead.

Israel is seeking international and regional security guarantees to ensure the Islamist Hamas group cannot rearm.

The Palestinians, in turn, want Israel to end its crippling blockade of the aid-dependent coastal enclave.

"You need to find a carrot for both sides. That's the only way it will work," said a senior European diplomat.

Hamas officials in Gaza said the group was still considering the plan, denying reports that they had rejected it.

Based on interviews with diplomatic and political sources, here are the main components of the emerging ceasefire plan:

CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES

Once agreement is reached, Israel would unilaterally end its military operation, though it is unclear how quickly. Before stopping, it may opt to widen its ground offensive.

Israel will not enter into any formal ceasefire with Hamas because, it believes, doing so would only bolster the Islamist group's standing, both at home and abroad.

Speaking to ambassadors in Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the goal was to "defeat" Hamas, not make a treaty with it. "This is not going to happen," she said.

As Israel pulls out of Gaza, Hamas would stop firing rockets. Egypt and other Arab states would act as intermediaries. The Islamist group said the rockets would stop if Israel would lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and halt cross-border raids.

ANTI-SMUGGLING MEASURES

This is the most important issue for Israel. Talks have centered on a proposed international deployment along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt to help prevent the Islamist group from bringing in more rockets and funds.

Israel wants the deployment to include both armed forces and experts that can search out and destroy tunnels along the narrow Philadelphi corridor, which separates the two sides.

Israeli aircraft have dropped bunker-buster bombs along the corridor, and large numbers of nearby Palestinian homes have been destroyed.