CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt's foreign ministry on Thursday denied that Israel's firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has been invited to visit Cairo, despite Israeli claims to the contrary.
"This news is devoid of truth," a ministry statement said of an Israeli foreign ministry claim that Lieberman had been invited to Egypt during a visit to Jerusalem on Wednesday by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
"The Egyptian intelligence chief only extended an invitation to the head of the Israeli government to visit Egypt at a time which will soon be agreed," it said, referring to hawkish new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Earlier on Thursday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak confirmed that an invitation had been sent to Netanyahu to visit, but not with Lieberman.
"The Israeli prime minister might come to see us in May," Mubarak said in a speech to mark the end of Israel's 15-year occupation of the Sinai peninsula in 1982.
"Some say... that he will bring his foreign minister with him," Mubarak said. "The Israeli prime minister is coming alone. His cabinet chief will come with him. He will not bring any other minister with him."
Relations between Egypt and Israel have deteriorated since Lieberman, who last year said Mubarak could "go to hell" if he continued to refuse to visit Israel, was named foreign minister.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told Egyptian television earlier this month that he would not shake Lieberman's hand.
Wednesday's visit by Suleiman, Egypt's pointman in efforts to try to forge a lasting Gaza truce between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas, was the first by such a high-level official since Netanyahu was sworn in on March 31.
His refusal to publicly endorse the creation of a Palestinian state has raised fears that Israel's new cabinet is on a collision course with the new US administration which has vowed to push ahead with the peace process.
Several Israeli leaders have visited Egypt since the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979 -- the first between Israel and an Arab state -- but Mubarak has never been on an official trip to the Jewish state.
Lieberman has branded an Arab Middle East peace initiative as "dangerous" because it requires Israel to allow the return of Palestinian refugees, and has refused to endorse the 2007 US-backed deal that revived negotiations with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu underlined "the common interests between Egypt and Israel, starting with peace," after his two-hour meeting with Suleiman.
The talks also covered the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured by Palestinian militants in Gaza in June 2006, and the situation in the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory which borders Egypt.
Suleiman has been mediating in efforts to arrange an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Shalit.
Egypt has played a crucial role in recent years in efforts to broker a number of ceasefires between the Jewish state and the Hamas rulers of Gaza.
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