Britain defiant in trillion-euro EU budget battle

BRUSSELS: France and Germany called for compromise Thursday at an EU summit on the bloc's hotly disputed trillion-euro budget, after British Prime Minister David Cameron turned up in Brussels threatening to wield his veto.

"I have come to seek a compromise, not to set an ultimatum," said French President Francois Hollande, adding that "Europe is a compromise" and that no country "can come seeking what it spent, otherwise there is no more Europe."

Minutes earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for compromise but admitted that a deal between the bloc's 27 member states might be hard to achieve in the two-day summit aimed at reaching an agreement on the 2014-2020 budget.

The two leaders were speaking to reporters ahead of individual "confessionals" held by EU president Herman Van Rompuy with all 27 leaders before the summit officially opened.

Several countries led by Britain are seeking huge cuts in the trillion-euro budget to match austerity programmes at home, but Hollande has rejected proposals to cut spending on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the largest item on the budget.

France is the biggest recipient of CAP funds.

Britain was the potential chief spoiler at the summit, with Cameron threatening to wield his veto unless spending is frozen in real terms for the union that is home to 500 million people and which forms the world's biggest trading bloc.

"No, I'm not happy at all... Clearly at a time when we are making difficult decisions at home over public spending, it would be quite wrong... for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU," he told reporters.

But an EU diplomat said Cameron, who is under constant pressure from eurosceptics in his Tory party to battle supposed European meddling and bureaucracy, was prepared to accept a 940-billion-euro spending ceiling.

He had initially vowed to settle only for a real-terms freeze from 2011 levels -- which Britain believes would be equivalent to 886 billion euros -- but could still claim he had won a budget cut if the new plan proceeds.

EU net contributor nations -- Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden -- have banded together to demand spending cuts, but are far from being on the same page regarding what should be cut or by how much.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt stuck to his guns as he arrived for his meeting with Van Rompuy, telling reporters: "We want the overall level to come down and we want a more modern budget."

Much of Europe is in or close to recession and austerity-driven nations are demanding huge cuts in EU spending to match belt-tightening at home.

So-called Cohesion Funds -- billions of euros outlayed each year to the EU's newer and poorer entrants in the south and east of the continent so they can catch up with richer neighbours -- are central to the battle at the Brussels summit.

The funds will be defended tooth and nail by the 15 "Friends of Cohesion" nations -- led by Poland and Portugal -- who are net beneficiaries of the EU budget.

"Cohesion is an issue of competitiveness and growth for the whole European Union, not just for the countries with the greatest needs," argued Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of debt-stricken Greece.

The cohesion funds are the second-biggest budget item after CAP payments to farmers and fishermen, which are another bone of contention.

France is by far the biggest CAP beneficiary, and Hollande vowed to fight to keep the prized agricultural subsidies, while denying he was purely defending national interests.

Earlier this week he lashed out at countries which defended budget rebates, the third hot-button issue at the summit.

He did not name any specific countries, but Britain in particular cherishes its budget rebate, which then prime minister Margaret Thatcher obtained in 1984 on the grounds that London was paying too much into the bloc's coffers.

The British rebate was worth 3.6 billion euros last year, and Cameron vowed Thursday that he had no plans to give it up. Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria are insistent on keeping their rebates.

The sense of summit crisis was heightened by the failure on Wednesday at a eurozone finance ministers' meeting to unblock bailout funds needed to keep Greece from bankruptcy.

-AFP/ac

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Show mercy to Sarabjit: Justice Katju to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has once again appealed to the president and the prime minister of Pakistan to release Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who is on death row for over two decades.

Katju's appeal came on a day when 26/11 attack convict Ajmal Kasab was hanged in Pune following rejection of his mercy plea by President Pranab Mukherjee.

"You must have heard that Ajmal Kasab has been hanged in India. I wish to respectfully point out to you that this case is totally different from that of Sarabjit Singh who has been on death row in Pakistan for 21 years.

"About Kasab, there is no doubt about his guilt as he was caught red handed. However, there is great doubt about the guilt of Sarabjit Singh. So, the two cases are not similar," Katju said in a letter to the Pakistan high commissioner to India Salman Bashir. He asked Bashir to convey his views to the Pakistan president and the prime minister.

Noting that he had pleaded for Sarabjit's release in his four previous letters, Katju said, "I earnestly request you to pardon him and send him back to India".

He said though there were no doubts that courts there have convicted Sarabjit, there were "serious flaws" in the prosecution version.

Katju said Sarabjit's name was not even in the FIR related to the Lahore bomb blast in 1990 for which he has been convicted. He said the main prosecution witness Shaukat Salim later retracted his statement and said it was given under police pressure.

As regards his alleged confession, the PCI Chairman said Sarabjit's own version was that he had illegally gone to Pakistan for doing liquor trade and was arrested there and falsely implicated in the bomb blast case.

" ... He has already spent 21 years in death row when he does not know when he would be hanged. This is enough to drive one mad. I sincerely urge you to show mercy and exercise your power of pardon in his case," Katju said.

The Pakistani high commissioner replied to Justice Katju's message assuring him that it would be conveyed to Islamabad.

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US abortions fall 5 pct, biggest drop in a decade

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. abortions fell 5 percent during the recession and its aftermath in the biggest one-year decrease in at least a decade, perhaps because women are more careful to use birth control when times are tough, researchers say.

The decline, detailed on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Both the number of abortions and the abortion rate dropped by the same percentage.

Some experts theorize that some women believed they couldn't afford to get pregnant.

"They stick to straight and narrow ... and they are more careful about birth control," said Elizabeth Ananat, a Duke University assistant professor of public policy and economics who has researched abortions.

While many states have aggressively restricted access to abortion, most of those laws were adopted in the past two years and are not believed to have played a role in the decline.

Abortions have been dropping slightly over much of the past decade. But before this latest report, they seemed to have pretty much leveled off.

Nearly all states report abortion numbers to the federal government, but it's voluntary. A few states — including California, which has the largest population and largest number of abortion providers — don't send in data. While experts estimate there are more than 1 million abortions nationwide each year, the CDC counted about 785,000 in 2009 because of incomplete reporting.

To come up with reliable year-to-year comparisons, the CDC used the numbers from 43 states and two cities — those that have been sending in data consistently for at least 10 years. The researchers found that abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age fell from about 16 in 2008 to roughly 15 in 2009. That translates to nearly 38,000 fewer abortions in one year.

Mississippi had the lowest abortion rate, at 4 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. The state also had only a couple of abortion providers and has the nation's highest teen birth rate. New York, second to California in number of abortion providers, had the highest abortion rate, roughly eight times Mississippi's.

Nationally since 2000, the number of reported abortions has dropped overall by about 6 percent and the abortion rate has fallen 7 percent.

By all accounts, contraception is playing a role in lowering the numbers.

Some experts cite a government study released earlier this year suggesting that about 60 percent of teenage girls who have sex use the most effective kinds of contraception, including the pill and patch. That's up from the mid-1990s, when fewer than half were using the best kinds.

Experts also pointed to the growing use of IUDs, or intrauterine devices, T-shaped plastic sperm-killers that a doctor inserts into the uterus. A study released earlier this year by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that does research on reproductive health, showed that IUD use among sexually active women on birth control rose from less than 3 percent in 2002 to more than 8 percent in 2009.

IUDs essentially prevent "user error," said Rachel Jones, a Guttmacher researcher.

Ananat said another factor may be the growing use of the morning-after pill, a form of emergency contraception that has been increasingly easier to get. It came onto the market in 1999 and in 2006 was approved for non-prescription sale to women 18 and older. In 2009 that was lowered to 17.

Underlying all this may be the economy, which was in recession from December 2007 until June 2009. Even well afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried about anemic hiring, a depressed housing market and other problems.

You might think a bad economy would lead to more abortions by women who are struggling. However, John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health, said: "The economy seems to be having a fundamental effect on pregnancies, not abortions."

More findings from the CDC:

— The majority of abortions are performed by the eighth week of pregnancy, when the fetus is about the size of a lima bean.

— White women had the lowest abortion rate, at about 8.5 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age; the rate for black women was about four times that. The rate for Hispanic women was about 19 per 1,000.

— About 85 percent of those who got abortions were unmarried.

— The CDC identified 12 abortion-related deaths in 2009.

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Cease-Fire Reached in Israel/Hamas Conflict in Gaza

A cease-fire was reached today in the bloody clash between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Egyptian and American officials announced after a meeting between Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr appeared with Clinton at 12:30 p.m. ET to announce that a cease-fire would begin at 9 p.m. local time, or 2 p.m. ET.

Last minute strikes continued in Gaza even after the announcement was made.

"This is a critical moment for the region," Clinton said while standing next to Amr.

"The people of this region deserve a chance to live free of fear and violence and today's agreement is a step" in that direction, Clinton said. "Now we have to focus on reaching a durable outcome."

Clinton said that Egypt and the U.S. would help support the peace process going forward.

"Ultimately every step must move us toward a comprehensive peace for people of the region," she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the cease-fire from Tel Aviv after Morsi's announcement.

"I agree that that it was a good idea to give an opportunity to the cease-fire... in order to enable Israeli citizens to return to their day to day lives," Netanyahu said.

He reiterated that it was vital to Israel's security to "prevent smuggling of arms to terrorist organizations" in the future.

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The announcement comes on the eighth day of violence, which has claimed more than 130 Palestinian lives and five Israelis, and is the worst violence in the region in four years.

An Israeli official told ABC News that the ceasefire would mean a "quiet for quiet" deal, in which both sides stop shooting and "wait and see what happens."

"Who knows if the ceasefire will even last two minutes," the official said. The official said that any possible agreement on borders and blockades on the Gaza/Israel border would come only after a period of quiet.

Clinton and Morsi met for three hours in Cairo today to discuss an end to the violence. The secretary of state met with Netanyahu Tuesday night for more than two hours, saying she sought to "de-escalate the situation in Gaza."

The discussions came hours after a bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv this morning, wounding at least 10 people, and a night filled with airstrikes on Gaza by Israeli aircraft.

The fighting dragged on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning despite Hamas officials declaring publicly Tuesday afternoon that they expected a cease-fire would be announced Tuesday night, after Clinton and Netanyahu's talks.

The airstrikes by the Israeli Defense Forces overnight hit government ministries, underground tunnels, a banker's empty villa and a Hamas-linked media office. At least four strikes within seconds of each other pulverized a complex of government ministries the size of a city block, rattling nearby buildings and shattering windows.

Hours later, clouds of acrid dust still hung over the area and smoke still rose from the rubble. Gaza health officials said there were no deaths or injuries.

On Wednesday morning, the IDF said they had destroyed 50 underground rocket launching sites in Gaza. They also said that Israel's "Iron Dome" missile shield intercepted two rockets from Gaza into Israel overnight as well.

Around 12 p.m. in Israel, however, a bomb exploded on a public bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, in one of the city's busiest areas. Israel police said the explosion was a terrorist attack, the first in Israel since 2006.

Upon landing in Cairo to meet with Morsi, Clinton released a statement condemning the attack.

"The United States strongly condemns this terrorist attack and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the people of Israel. As I arrive in Cairo, I am closely monitoring reports from Tel Aviv, and we will stay in close contact with Prime Minister Netanyahu's team. The United States stands ready to provide any assistance that Israel requires," she said.

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Hamas and Israel agree to ceasefire

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt on the eighth day of intensive Israeli fire on the Gaza Strip and militant rocket attacks out of the enclave, Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.

First word of the truce came from a Palestinian official who has knowledge of the negotiations in Cairo, where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also pursuing peace efforts.

Asked whether a ceasefire deal had been reached, an Egyptian official in Cairo said: "Yes, and Egypt will announce it."

Egyptian state TV had earlier said a news conference would be broadcast from President Mohamed Mursi's palace shortly.

Israeli sources said Israel had agreed to a truce, but would not lift its blockade of the Palestinian territory, which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement.

All the sources declined to be named or to give further details of the arrangements hammered out in Cairo.

More than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in the fighting that began last Wednesday.

The ceasefire, if confirmed, was forged despite a bus bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier in the day and despite more Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

After talks in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Clinton held a second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before travelling to Egypt for discussions with Mursi, whose country has led mediation efforts.

In Tel Aviv, targeted by rockets from Gaza that either did not hit the city or were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system, 15 people were wounded when a bus was blown up near the Defence Ministry and military headquarters.

The blast, which police said was caused by a bomb placed on the vehicle, touched off celebratory gunfire from militants in Gaza and had threatened to complicate truce efforts. It was the first serious bombing in Israel's commercial capital since 2006.

In Gaza, Israel struck more than 100 targets, including a cluster of Hamas government buildings, in attacks that medical officials said killed 10 people, among them a 2-year-old boy.

Israel's best-selling Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper had reported an emerging outline of a ceasefire agreement that called for Egypt to announce a 72-hour ceasefire followed by further talks on long-term understandings.

Under the proposed document, which the newspaper said neither party would be required to sign, Israel would hold its fire, end attacks against top militants and promise to examine ways to ease its blockade of Gaza, controlled by Hamas Islamists who do not recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.

Hamas, the report said, would pledge not to strike any Israeli target and ensure other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip also stop their attacks.

Israel has carried out more than 1,500 strikes since the offensive began with the killing of a top Hamas commander and with declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching rocket attacks that have long disrupted life in its southern towns.

Medical officials in Gaza said 146 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, including 36 children, have been killed in Israel's offensive. Nearly 1,400 rockets have been fired into Israel, killing four civilians and a soldier, the military said.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo)

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Deloitte denies HP claim on audit missteps

NEW YORK: The audit and consulting firm Deloitte on Wednesday rejected claims by US tech giant Hewlett-Packard that it missed "accounting improprieties" at the British firm Autonomy ahead of a takeover.

Deloitte's comments came a day after HP reported a massive loss and blamed deliberate financial misstatements from the British software firm it bought in 2011.

A statement from the London office of Deloitte said the firm "was not engaged by HP, or by Autonomy, to provide any due diligence in relation to the acquisition of Autonomy."

It added that Deloitte UK "was auditor to Autonomy at the time of its acquisition by HP" but that it never uncovered any irregularities.

"Deloitte categorically denies that it had any knowledge of any accounting improprieties or misrepresentations in Autonomy's financial statements," the statement said.

"We conducted our audit work in full compliance with regulation and professional standards. We are unable to discuss our audit work further due to client confidentiality. We will cooperate with the relevant authorities with any investigations into these allegations."

HP said Tuesday it was taking a writedown of $8.8 billion, largely because of the reduced value of the software company acquired just over a year ago for more than $10 billion.

While writedowns under accounting rules are not unusual for slumping firms, HP said this was a case of deliberately misleading statements by Autonomy that went unnoticed until now, and it called for probes by US and British authorities.

HP chief executive Meg Whitman, who took over after the acquisition, said the HP board at the time "relied on audited financials, audited by Deloitte."

She said another audit firm, KPMG, was hired "to audit Deloitte, and neither of them saw what we now see."

HP said it launched an internal investigation "after a senior member of Autonomy's leadership team came forward," prompting a fresh review by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

As a result, HP said it "now believes that Autonomy was substantially overvalued at the time of its acquisition."

- AFP/fa

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India rejects OIC foreign ministers' references to Kashmir

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday rejected the "factually incorrect and misleading" references made by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Jammu and Kashmir at its session of the council of foreign ministers in African nation Djibouti last week.

Responding to a question on resolutions adopted during the 39th Session of the OIC foreign ministers in Djibouti Nov 15-17, an external affairs ministry spokesperson said it had made misleading references to matters internal to the country.

"We note with regret that the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has once again made factually incorrect and misleading references to matters internal to India, including the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India. We reject all such references/resolutions," the spokesperson said.

The OIC resolution had expressed regret at the attempt to malign the legitimate Kashmiri "struggle" by terming it as terrorism.

The contact group on Jammu and Kashmir which met on the sidelines of the council of foreign ministers, reaffirmed the "principal position of the OIC in fully supporting the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their struggle to achieve their legitimate rights and stressed on considering new means for supporting them".

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New push for most in US to get at least 1 HIV test

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.

Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once — not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.

The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make HIV screening simply a routine part of a check-up, something a doctor can order with as little fuss as a cholesterol test or a mammogram. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has pushed for widespread, routine HIV screening.

Yet not nearly enough people have heeded that call: Of the more than 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, nearly 1 in 5 — almost 240,000 people — don't know it. Not only is their own health at risk without treatment, they could unwittingly be spreading the virus to others.

The updated guidelines will bring this long-simmering issue before doctors and their patients again — emphasizing that public health experts agree on how important it is to test even people who don't think they're at risk, because they could be.

"It allows you to say, 'This is a recommended test that we believe everybody should have. We're not singling you out in any way,'" said task force member Dr. Douglas Owens of Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

And if finalized, the task force guidelines could extend the number of people eligible for an HIV screening without a copay in their doctor's office, as part of free preventive care under the Obama administration's health care law. Under the task force's previous guidelines, only people at increased risk for HIV — which includes gay and bisexual men and injecting drug users — were eligible for that no-copay screening.

There are a number of ways to get tested. If you're having blood drawn for other exams, the doctor can merely add HIV to the list, no extra pokes or swabs needed. Today's rapid tests can cost less than $20 and require just rubbing a swab over the gums, with results ready in as little as 20 minutes. Last summer, the government approved a do-it-yourself at-home version that's selling for about $40.

Free testing is available through various community programs around the country, including a CDC pilot program in drugstores in 24 cities and rural sites.

Monday's proposal also recommends:

—Testing people older and younger than 15-64 if they are at increased risk of HIV infection,

—People at very high risk for HIV infection should be tested at least annually.

—It's not clear how often to retest people at somewhat increased risk, but perhaps every three to five years.

—Women should be tested during each pregnancy, something the task force has long recommended.

The draft guidelines are open for public comment through Dec. 17.

Most of the 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. every year are among gay and bisexual men, followed by heterosexual black women.

"We are not doing as well in America with HIV testing as we would like," Dr. Jonathan Mermin, CDC's HIV prevention chief, said Monday.

The CDC recommends at least one routine test for everyone ages 13 to 64, starting two years younger than the task force recommended. That small difference aside, CDC data suggests fewer than half of adults under 65 have been tested.

"It can sometimes be awkward to ask your doctor for an HIV test," Mermin said — the reason that making it routine during any health care encounter could help.

But even though nearly three-fourths of gay and bisexual men with undiagnosed HIV had visited some sort of health provider in the previous year, 48 percent weren't tested for HIV, a recent CDC survey found. Emergency rooms are considered a good spot to catch the undiagnosed, after their illnesses and injuries have been treated, but Mermin said only about 2 percent of ER patients known to be at increased risk were tested while there.

Mermin calls that "a tragedy. It's a missed opportunity."

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Hopes Rise for Gaza Ceasefire

Hopes for a ceasefire between between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza rose today as Hamas declared that a ceasefire would be announced and Israel indicated that a deal was possible.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told ABC News the news would be announced at a press conference in Cairo where Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been trying to broker an end to the fighting.

An Islamic Jihad website also reported that the ceasefire would go into effect tonight.

The Israel-Gaza Conflict in Pictures

Israeli officials, however, told ABC News that a final deal had not been concluded and if there was a pact it would be announced after midnight local time, or 5 p.m ET, following a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Clinton flew to the region today to meet with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas about the fighting.

A ceasefire, if it can be reached, would bring a halt to the worst violence between Gaza and Israel in four years. In the meantime, however, Abu Zuhri called on all militant groups to continue firing rockets on Israel "in retaliation for the Israeli massacres."

Israeli missiles also continued to explode in Gaza while sirens sounded in Israel, signalling incoming rocket fire from Gaza.

Hamas said three Palestinian journalists were killed by an Israeli missile today and Israel said one of its soldiers was killed in by a Palestinian rocket today.

Gazans streamed out of northern neighborhoods during the afternoon after the Israel Defense Forces dropped leaflets telling residents to evacuate before dark. Scared Palestinians poured into Gaza City, cars and trucks piled high with belongings, many heading to schools for shelter.

There have been 126 Palestinian deaths in six days of fighting, just under half were civilians. Three Israelis were killed last Thursday when a rocket slammed into their apartment.

ABC News' Matt Gutman contributed to this report

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Hamas says Gaza truce agreed, Israel says no deal yet

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Hamas official said on Tuesday Egypt had brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal that would go into effect within hours, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we're not there yet".

"An agreement for calm has been reached. It will be declared at 9 o'clock (1900 GMT) and go into effect at midnight (2200 GMT)," Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters from Cairo, where intensive efforts have been under way to end seven days of fighting.

Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told Reuters the announcement was premature and Israeli military operations in Gaza, territory run by Hamas Islamists, would continue in parallel with diplomacy.

"We're not there yet," Regev said on CNN. "The ball's still in play."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was heading to the region from Asia and was expected in Jerusalem late on Tuesday to meet Netanyahu.

Both Israel and the United States have said they preferred a diplomatic solution to the Gaza crisis to a possible Israeli ground operation in the densely-populated enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians.

"No country would tolerate rocket attacks against its cities and against its civilians. Israel cannot tolerate such attacks," Netanyahu said with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Jerusalem from talks in Cairo, at his side.

"If a long-term solution can be put in place through diplomatic means, then Israel would be a willing partner to such a solution," he said.

"But if stronger military action proves necessary to stop the constant barrage of rockets, Israel will do what is necessary to defend our people," said Netanyahu, who is favored to win a January general election.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Monday that Israel must halt its military action in the Gaza Strip and lift the blockade of the Palestinian territory in exchange for a truce.

Hours before the Hamas official said an agreement had been clinched, Egypt's state media quoted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi as saying "that the farce of Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip will end on Tuesday"

Mursi said, according to the reports, that "efforts to conclude a truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides will produce positive results in the next few hours".

Israel pressed on with air strikes and Palestinian rockets flashed across the border on Tuesday.

Israel's military on Tuesday targeted about 100 sites in Gaza, including ammunition stores and the Gaza headquarters of the National Islamic Bank. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said six Palestinians were killed.

Israeli police said more than 150 rockets were fired from Gaza by late afternoon, many of them intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system. Ten people were wounded in Israel, the military and an ambulance service said.

Medical officials in Gaza said 126 Palestinians have died in a week of fighting, the majority of them civilians, including 27 children.

Three Israelis died last week when a rocket from Gaza struck their house.

HAMAS TARGETS JERUSALEM

In an attack claimed in Gaza by Hamas's armed wing, a longer-range rocket targeted Jerusalem on Tuesday for the second time since Israel launched the air offensive with the declared aim of deterring Palestinian militants from launching rocket salvoes that have plagued its south for years.

The rocket, which fell harmlessly in the occupied West Bank, triggered warning sirens in the holy city about the time Ban arrived in Jerusalem for truce discussions.

In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Hamas executed six alleged collaborators, whom a security source quoted by the Hamas Aqsa radio said "were caught red-handed" with "filming equipment to take footage of positions". The radio said they were shot.

A delegation of nine Arab ministers, led by the Egyptian foreign minister, visited Gaza in a further signal of heightened Arab solidarity with the Palestinians.

Fortified by the ascendancy of fellow Islamists in Egypt and elsewhere, and courted by Sunni Arab leaders in the Gulf keen to draw the Palestinian group away from old ties to Shi'ite Iran, Hamas has tested its room for maneuver, as well as longer-range rockets that have also reached the Tel Aviv metropolis.

Egypt, Gaza's other neighbor and the biggest Arab nation, has been a key player in efforts to end the most serious fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants since a three-week Israeli invasion of the enclave in the winter of 2008-9.

The ousting of U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and the election of Mursi is part of a dramatic reshaping of the Middle East wrought by Arab uprisings and now affecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mursi, whose Muslim Brotherhood was mentor to the founders of Hamas, on Monday took a call from Obama, who told him Hamas must stop rocket fire into Israel - effectively endorsing Israel's stated aim in launching the offensive last week. Obama also said he regretted civilian deaths - which have been predominantly among the Palestinians.

Mursi has warned Netanyahu of serious consequences from an invasion of the kind that killed more than 1,400 people in Gaza four years ago. But he has been careful not to alienate Israel, with whom Egypt's former military rulers signed a peace treaty in 1979, or Washington, a major aid donor to Egypt.

Addressing troops training in southern Israel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: "Hamas will not disappear but the memory of this experience will remain with it for a very long time and this is what will restore deterrence."

But he said: "Quiet has not yet been achieved and so we are continuing (the offensive) ... there are also diplomatic contacts -- ignore that, you are here so that if the order for action must be given - you will act."

Fighting Israel, whose right to exist Hamas refuses to recognize, is popular with many Palestinians and has kept the movement competitive with the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who remains in the West Bank after losing Gaza to his Islamist rival in a civil war five years ago.

"Hamas and the others, they're our sons and our brothers, we're fingers on the same hand," said 55-year-old Faraj al-Sawafir, whose home was blasted by Israeli forces. "They fight for us and are martyred, they take losses and we sacrifice too."

Along Israel's sandy, fenced-off border with the Gaza Strip, tanks, artillery and infantry massed in field encampments awaiting any orders to go in. Some 45,000 reserve troops have been called up since the offensive was launched.

Israel's shekel rose on Tuesday for a second straight session while Tel Aviv shares gained for a third day in a row on what dealers attributed to investor expectations that a ceasefire deal was imminent.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad in Cairo, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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