On his first trip abroad since taking office on Tuesday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, had two hours of talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday in the Egyptian port of Alexandria.
Both men appeared relaxed after the meeting and stressed the urgent need to bring stability to the region by restarting the stalled peace process, but also cautioned that progress needed time.
"I have had great hopes since the Prime Minister took office and we are looking forward, but we have to give him some time to make a reshaping of the situation," President Mubarak said after the talks.
Mr Barak's trip marked the beginning of what promises to be a flurry of diplomatic activity as he tries to restart the stalled Middle East peace process.
As first stop on what is essentially a trust-building mission, Egypt was both a symbolic and strategic choice. Not only was it the first Arab country to make peace with Israel but its support will be important to the Jewish state in future negotiations.
Speaking outside the lavish Ras al-Tin palace on the shores of the Mediterranean, Mr Barak underlined this: "Egypt had a unique role in establishing the peace process in the Middle East under the late president Sadat."
He also referred to the contribution of President Mubarak during what he described as some of the more delicate moments of negotiation with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a contribution he may need to ask for again in the coming weeks.
Both Mr Barak and Mr Mubarak were keen to avoid details of how the new Prime Minister would change the policies of his predecessor, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, but the issue of settlements was briefly addressed.
"We are not going to build new settlements and we are not going to dismantle any," Mr Barak answered when asked whether recent settlers would be evicted. How the latter part of this comment will be received in Arab capitals remains to be seen. As the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Moussa, commented to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, settlements are the real obstacle to peace, and many in the Arab world see the expansion of settlement activity under the previous government as an attempt to create facts on the ground before entering in to final status negotiations with the Palestinians. This latest statement will do little to allay these fears.
Mr Barak tomorrow moves on to the next of his getting-to-know-the-neighbours courtesy calls - a meeting with Mr Arafat, at the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. After that comes dinner with Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday night. And that is to be followed by a trip to Washington to meet President Clinton on Wednesday, with a visit to Morocco's King Hassan yet to be scheduled. With all these meetings taking place within the first two weeks of his taking office, Mr Barak gives every impression of trying to make up the peacemaking time lost during the three years of the Netanyahu era.
Mr Barak has said little publicly about the specific path forward he wants to follow with Mr Arafat, but the Israeli media claimed yesterday that he was contemplating issuing a dramatic offer to the Palestinian leader: a promise to recognise the independent state of Palestine at the culmination of 12 or 18 months of intensive talks to resolve all outstanding Israeli-Palestinian disputes.
Mr Barak would have little to lose in making such an offer. Most Israelis have long since realised that the rest of the world is on the brink of recognising Palestine. Indeed, they elected Mr Barak precisely because they wanted a prime minister who was prepared to face up to that reality and rebuild the partnership with the Palestinians.
In return, Mr Barak would hope to persuade Mr Arafat to forgo at least some elements of last October's Wye Plantation peace deal, under which he was to receive another 13 per cent of the West Bank - an accord signed, but then stalled, by Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Barak has reservations about several aspects of the accord. He is not opposed to relinquishing occupied West Bank land - indeed, he is prepared to withdraw from much more of that territory than was Mr Netanyahu - but he is reluctant to be hurried into implementation of the deal, and would rather agree on the full scope of the land to be returned in the context of a permanent peace deal.