Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit has renewed Egypt's refusal to take part in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Speaking to the Egyptian television's "Halet Hewar" programme on Wednesday 16/8/2006, Abul-Gheit said nobody would accept to have an Egyptian soldier killed in Lebanon whether by Arab or Israeli hands.

The Egyptian top diplomat described as unwise calls for severing ties with Israel. Egypt and Israel are bound by a peace agreement and should the withdrawal of the Egyptian ambassador from Israel have stopped the war, the killing of children and the destruction of Lebanon, we would have done so.

Abul-Gheit said that the Egyptian ambassador was keeping the Egyptian authorities posted on what is happening within Israeli society, the views and ideas.

He also conveys Egypt's views to the Israeli side, he added.

He said that freezing the peace treaty with Israel, as some call for, only means a return to the pre-peace agreement state, i.e. the state of war.

Abul-Gheit said Egypt has managed to prevail its idea of deploying the UNIFIL, not other forces, on the Lebanese borders.

Eight days after the beginning of the Lebanon war, Egypt has pressed for the deployment of the UNIFIL, he said.

Eventually, Egypt has succeeded to push forward its proposal via the United Nations and the international community, he added.

Abul-Gheit said that Egypt expected a major Israeli response following the Hezbollah attack on July 12.

This assumption was that the Hezbollah operation followed a Hamas operation ten days earlier in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and another soldier was captured, he said.

Abul-Gheit noted that President Hosni Mubarak instructed him to travel to Syria to listen to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's evaluation of the issue.

Abul-Gheit said that he warned his Israeil counterpart Tzipi Livin that an Israeli resopnse to the Hezbollah operation will complicate the situation.

But they have not heeded to the Egyptian advice, he added.