UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday stressed the importance of reviving the Middle East peace process as he is nearing the end of his one-week tour of the region in a bid to silence gunfire in Gaza.

"We need to put this Middle East peace process back on track," said Ban at an Egypt-hosted summit held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al-sheikh, which was aimed at shoring up the shaky ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

"The whole international community, particularly Arab countries, should fully support this process," he said, adding that the 2006 Lebanon war and the 2008 fighting in Gaza were the "repetition of the failure of this peace process."

Ban hailed the ceasefire which was separately declared by Israel and Hamas, but warned that "with the division of the Palestinian people, this may only be a stopgap, there is no guarantee that this will not happen again."

Earlier on Saturday, he expressed relief over the unilateral ceasefire by Israel and urged the full withdrawal of Israeli troops and Hamas to stop firing rockets.

"I am relieved that the Israeli government has decided to cease hostilities as of midnight GMT," Ban said.

He said that Israel's ceasefire "should be the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza," adding that he wanted the withdrawal "as soon as possible."

Israeli troops began to withdraw from Gaza on Sunday.

Hamas militants also needed to do their part to end the violence by stop firing rockets to southern Israel at once, he said.

The UN chief had been promoting a ceasefire since Israel launched its air offensive on December 27 and embarked on a week-long extensive tour of Middle East on Wednesday to press for Israel and Hamas to accept UN Security Council Resolution 1860 that calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Ban tried to be objective by condemning both Israel and the Islamic groups for the bloodshed in Gaza. He criticized Hamas' rocket firing into Israel, at the same time, condemning Israel's disproportionate response, especially after Israel hit UN-sponsored schools.

"To both sides, I say: just stop now," Ban said at a news conference before departure. "Too many people have died. There has been too much civilian suffering. Too many people, Israelis and Palestinians, live in daily fear of their lives."

Ban has visited several countries and talked with top officials that he said "can make a difference."

Ban set feet on Egypt on Wednesday, the first stop of his one-week tour, where he held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, reviewing the latest development of the Gaza crisis and discussed an Egyptian initiative aimed at putting an end to the conflict in Gaza.

In Israel, Ban renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire and said in a joint press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that the death toll in Gaza had reached an "unbearable point," and it was his understanding in talks with regional leaders in Egypt, Jordan and Israel that the fighting in Gaza was coming to a close.

He also asserted that Israeli citizens had the right to live without fear of rockets, so the rocket attacks from Gaza must stop permanently and Hamas' use of private homes and civilian institutions was "unacceptable."

When talking with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Friday, Ban said he was pleased with the active policy pursued by Turkey in the region, adding that the country should maintain its efforts to prevent a likely separation in the Arab world.

Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since the two countries signed a military accord in 1996, but the onslaught in Gaza has unleashed anger in Muslim-dominant Turkey.

On Saturday in Lebanon, Ban called on both sides in the conflict to stop fighting first and work out the details later in a bid to end what he called an "unprecedented" level of violence.

Weeks of violence killed over 1,000 people, many of them women and children, and wounded over 5,000 others, not to mention the widespread destruction and tremendous suffering for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents.

He noted the similarities between Gaza conflict and the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and urged all parties in Lebanon and Israel to continue to show restraint during this tense time in the region.

The extensive tour has also taken the UN chief to Jordan, Palestinian territories and Syria.

Ban, to wrap up his tour, said he was planning to send an assessment team to check out the humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)