Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the long-stalled Mideast peace process, but analysts said the tete-a-tete, though invested with great significance for the timing, would focus on reviewing both sides' plans rather than coming up with novel solutions.

The meeting between the two leaders in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Shiekh is the first one since Netanyahu took office on April 1.

Abdel Monem Said, director of Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a Cairo-based think tank, said the meeting will be restricted on reviewing bilateral views.

"Netanyahu will come to Egypt to present his ideas, point of view and his fresh plans about the peace process," Abdel told Xinhua, adding that "he will listen to President Hosni Mubarak."

The new Israeli administration's Middle East policy has been taking shape in the past few days. On Monday, Netanyahu, who spoke from Israel via satellite to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington, said that "We are prepared to resume peace negotiations without any delay, without any preconditions. The sooner, the better."

The prime minister's fresh approach involves a triple track toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians, namely a political track, a security track and an economic track.

But Netanyahu, who has been in favor of "economy for peace" since his election campaign, fell short of mentioning the widely accepted two-state solution.

"The two-state solution is the Arabs' principle, and it is nonnegotiable," Abdel said.

The Arab foreign ministers have rejected amending the Arab Peace Initiative, a Saudi-proposed plan with a two-state guideline, in an emergency meeting held in Cairo on Thursday, saying that Israel's commitments should not be reduced.

Netanyahu is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on May 18, when a bargaining on the solution is expected to top the agenda.

Abdel said that all the threads of peace process will be woven in Washington, where Obama will meet Mubarak, Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later this month.

"The whole peace plan will be completed in the United States, after the negotiations among all parties concerned," he added.

Abdel's view was echoed by Gamal Abd-Jawad, a political analyst at the same institute, who downplayed the importance of the Israeli leader's first visit to an Arab country.

"I don't expect too much of results out of the meeting between Mubarak and Netanyahu, but it is important to conduct such meetings to explore each others' views to come up with a common idea."

Israeli officials said the upcoming trip is a symbolic move designed to signal the importance Netanyahu places on relations with Cairo.

As an Israeli official put it, Netanyahu is visiting Egypt even before he goes to the United States shows how important he feels the ties with Egypt are.

However, Gamal ruled out the possibility of a quick fix to the Israeli-Palestinian standoff even if all the parties reached a consensus. "The Palestinian reconciliation is Egypt's first priority, they must form a unity government capable of negotiating the peace process with Israel first."

On Sunday, Cairo's press were dominated by stories about Obama's upcoming visit to Cairo in June. Galal Dewedar, a columnist of the state-controlled Al Akbar daily, said that the Arabs should make use of the US endorsement to the solution to unite their efforts and stances.

"Arabs should unite to face the Israeli prime minister's attempts to replace the two-state solution with the so-called fresh approach," he said.

He argued that the Israel is isolated among the international community nowadays as there are much criticism about the alleged criminal actions in Gaza war and the Jewish country's defiance of two-state solution.

But "Netanyahu has difficulties in marketing his views, as the United States, European Union and Arabs all agree on the two-state track, so he needs such a meeting to prove that he is not isolated," said Gamal.

Meshaal, the Hamas politburo chief in exile, told The New York Times earlier this month that the movement might accept a status quo of pre-1967 borders, though it does not recognize Israel.

"I promise the American administration and the international community that we will be part of the solution," Meshaal said, adding that "We are with a state on the 1967 borders."

The Netanyahu administration, despite shunning a clear stance toward the solution so far, has not totally rejected the idea.

Daniel Ayalon, a member of Israel Beiteinu party headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, said last Sunday that his country would accept a comprehensive peace agreement that entails a two-state solution.

"The government of Israel, because of our democratic tradition and because of the continuity principle, is going to abide by all previous commitments the former government took, including the acceptance of the road map to peace which will lead to a two-state solution," Ayalon was quoted by the website of Ha'aretz daily as saying.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2009)