Israel, Egypt End Talks; Border Dispute Not Solved : Israel, Egypt End Talks, Unable to Settle Taba Dispute

Egypt and Israel on Friday ended three days of talks aimed at improving relations but failed to resolve a key border dispute that is blocking a summit meeting between their leaders.

Egyptian and Israeli delegates said they would report to their respective governments on the talks before discussions are resumed at a date and place yet to be determined.

“The aim of the talks was trying to bring about better and more cordial relations between our two countries,” said David Kimche, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. “I think we made progress on this.”

Abdel-Halim Badawi, chief Egyptian delegate, said: “Each side will submit proposals to its government, which will make a decision. In the light of this decision, the date and site of the next meeting will be determined.”

‘Great Deal of Headway’

Kimche said the talks produced “a great deal of headway” in some areas, such as Israeli demands for greater trade and tourist exchanges.

Israeli officials said the two countries also agreed on other issues, including an Egyptian demand for the construction of monuments for its war dead in Israel and for the resettlement of some displaced Palestinians at the border town of Rafah.

Egypt agreed to allow Israel to continue the search for the bodies of soldiers killed in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and for the crew of a missing submarine in Egypt’s Mediterranean waters.

Still Hung Up on Taba

But the conference failed to resolve a dispute over Taba--a strip of beach near the port of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba straddling the Israeli-Egyptian border.

Israel captured Taba in the 1967 Six-Day War, but failed to return it to Egypt with other occupied Sinai territories in 1982 and turned it into a thriving beach resort.

Egypt has made a summit between President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres conditional on agreement over Taba.

Such a summit would be the first between Egyptian and Israeli leaders in nearly four years. An Israeli official said both sides agreed in principle about the necessity of a summit.

At the conference, the Israelis suggested conciliation as a means of resolving the Taba dispute, but the Egyptians want binding international arbitration.