US, Israel sign deal to boost Gaza truce effort

On its final working day, the Bush administration signed a last-minute deal with Israel aimed at cutting off the supply of smuggled weapons to Hamas and boosting Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire to end fighting in Gaza.

Shortly after Friday's signing, a senior government official in Israel said the country's Security Cabinet would vote Saturday night on an Egyptian proposal for a truce to end the 3-week-old offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers.

The "memorandum of understanding" signed in Washington by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calls for expanded intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel, as well as other U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe to prevent Hamas from rearming should Israel agree to a truce.

At a hastily arranged State Department ceremony, Livni, who arrived in Washington just hours earlier, described the deal as "a vital complement for a cessation of hostility" in the troubled region.

She said it could advance Israeli decision-making on the future of its offensive operations in Gaza, adding that it was meant "to complement Egyptian actions and to end of the flow of weapons to Gaza."

Rice said the deal "should be thought of as one of the elements of trying to bring into being a durable cease-fire, a cease-fire that can actually hold." The Bush administration has backed Israel throughout the crisis in Gaza, insisting that any truce be sustainable.

"As you know, there are a number of conditions that need to be obtained if a cease-fire is to be durable. ... And among them is to do something about the weapons smuggling and the potential for resupply of Hamas from other places, including from Iran," Rice said.

Livni told reporters later that she hoped European countries, notably Britain, France and Germany, would work out similar bilateral agreements with the Israelis.

The two-and-a-half page document outlines a framework under which the United States will provide military and intelligence assets, including detection and surveillance equipment, as well as logistical help and training to Israel, Egypt and other nations in the region. The equipment and training would be used for monitoring Gaza's land and sea borders.

The document also calls for the U.S. to expand work with its NATO partners in the effort, particularly in the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and eastern Africa, according to a text.

It also commits Washington to use "relevant components" of the U.S. military to assist Mideast governments in preventing "weapons and explosives flows to Gaza that originate in or transit their territories."

Although signed by the Bush administration, the agreement is binding on the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama and Rice and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said both Obama and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton had been briefed on the details.

Later Friday, Livni met Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky at the Capitol. As the three posed for photographers, the majority leader told Livni that the Congress stands "100 percent" behind Israel. Last week, both chambers passed a resolution expressing lawmakers' support for the Jewish nation.

Livni was grateful. "What we are doing is expressing the right of Israel to defend itself from terror, from this agenda of hatred being represented by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and by Iran in the region," she said.

Negotiations on the U.S.-Israel agreement concluded late Thursday after frenetic negotiations designed to address Israeli concerns that agreeing to a cease-fire in Gaza would allow Hamas to stock up on weapons again.

To agree to a cease-fire, Israel is demanding a halt to Hamas rocket attacks into southern Israel and internationally backed guarantees that Hamas will not rearm by smuggling weapons into the tiny Mediterranean strip, which it has controlled since 2007.

Less than two hours after Rice and Livni signed the document, the senior Israeli official said a Security Cabinet vote in favor of the truce would amount to a "unilateral" cease-fire, though Israeli forces would only leave Gaza after an official declaration that the fighting was over.

It would begin a phased process in which Israel stops the assault and gauges the reaction from Hamas militants. Israel would resume the offensive if the militants continue to fire rockets, the official said. Under the cease-fire proposal, Egypt would shut down weapons smuggling routes with international help, and discussions on the opening of Gaza's blockaded border crossings would take place later.

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Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.