Egypt has called on Israel to refrain from any violent response to the Tel Aviv suicide bombing overnight, Foreign Minister Mr Ahmed Maher said.
Maher told the press he had asked his Israeli counterpart, Mr Shimon Peres, during a phone conversation that Israel "refrain from any reaction or behaviour that might make a resumption of political action extremely difficult.
"Egypt calls on the Israeli government to consider the political dimension of the situation, and realise that its use of violence increases the chances of counterviolence. The situation should therefore be treated with much wisdom and political sense", Mr Maher said.
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv nightclub Friday night, killing 17 other people and injuring more than 100, in the deadliest anti-Israeli attack in five years.
Egypt wants to "open the way for an action which could put an end to the dangerous current situation and obtain the implementation by both sides of the Mitchell report and the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative", Mr Maher said.
The report by the US-led Mitchell commission says Israel should halt all settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories while the Egyptian-Jordanian plan calls for confidence building measures to put an end to the violence and resume the search for a definitive settlement.
He described as very important the statement read today by Mr Yasser Arafat, in which the Palestinian leader said he was ready to do "whatever is necessary" for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in a joint effort with Israel.
Condemning the blast, Mr Maher said he also spoke to Mr Arafat, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana, EU Middle East envoy Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos and Jordanian Foreign Minister Mr Abdel Ilah al-Khatib.
AFP