Egypt has agreed with the international Quartet for Middle East peace to hold a meeting in the country's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh this month, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Alaa el-Hadidi said the meeting will be attended by Israel and the Palestinians, without disclosing the specific date for the meeting, the official MENA news agency reported.

The meeting will look into taking specific steps to halt violence between Israel and the Palestinians and reach a comprehensive ceasefire to help resume the stalled Middle East peace process, el-Hadidi added.

In addition, Egypt has invited the Quartet, which groups the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, to meet the foreign ministers of the member-states of the Arab contact group in charge of reviving an Arab peace initiative, said the spokesman.

He said the second meeting was expected to be held following the first one that groups the Quartet, Israel and the Palestinians. The spokesman said the key to restore peace in the Middle East is to end the Israeli occupation and to establish a Palestinian state side by side with the Jewish state.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)