JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has approved in principle the deployment of Egyptian special forces, heavy weapons and armor in eastern Sinai.

Israeli officials said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has agreed to an Egyptian proposal for the deployment of 750 border guard troops in eastern Sinai. They said the troops would be equipped with armored combat vehicles, medium- to heavy weapons and would patrol the Israeli-Egyptian as well as the Egyptian-Gaza border.

Under the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Egypt could deploy a limited number of border guards in eastern Sinai. The Egyptian border guards could not be equipped with anything other than light weapons.

But officials said Sharon has agreed to a significant increase in Egyptian troops as well as unidentified heavier weapons and armor. They said the expanded Egyptian presence would bolster border security and could stop the flow of weapons from Sinai into the Gaza Strip across the eight-kilometer Philadephia corridor. (© 2005 Middle East Newsline 01/31/05)