Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks might be resumed in "next few weeks," though he managed to shun any words about the two-state solution.

Netanyahu, who arrived in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday noon, made the remarks at a joint press conference after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, on his first foreign visit since he took office in late March.

"We want peace with Palestinians, we want both Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side in peace, and we want to start peace talks with the Palestinians in the next few weeks," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu's positive words were believed to be a good sign that the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would be just a matter of time.

The Palestinian-Israeli peace talks have been halted since the end of last year, when the 22-day devastating Gaza war (Cast Lead Operation) broke out.

Last 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."

But still, Netanyahu conditioned the goodwill gesture on his three-way "fresh approach," which was raised last Monday.

"We hope the Israelis and the Palestinians could live together under peace, security and prosperity," he said, referring to his trademark triple track.

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

However, the "economy for peace" scheme has been rejected by Hamas, which does not recognize the Jewish state, and the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority, which is backed by the West.

Netanyahu's visit came just one week before his planned trip to the United States, when a showdown of his Middle East policy is expected.

The prospect of an imminent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks had been overshadowed by Netanyahu's choice of Avigdor Lieberman as his top diplomat, whose party adopted "No loyalty, no citizenship" as a slogan in 2009's election trail and rejected the Annapolis conference's two-state guideline.

Egypt became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Relations between the two countries have never been warm. Mubarak, Egypt's president since 1981, has never paid an official visit to the neighbor.

Despite that, Israel-Egypt ties are also marred by the firebrand Lieberman, who has threatened to bomb Egypt's High Dam and asked Mubarak to "go to hell."

Netanyahu has said several times since assuming power that he sees Egypt as a pivotal factor in Mideast stability and peacemaking. Cairo is now the mediator between Israel and the Islamic Hamas rulers of Gaza.

At the press conference, Mubarak described the talks with Netanyahu as "open and positive," but he urged the Israeli leadership to clarify its positions regarding the Mideast peace.

"Peace is not impossible, peace is made by strong people, brave people who are able to take hard decisions and abide by them," said the Egyptian president.

"Egypt, the whole area and the world are looking for peace in the Middle East," Mubarak said, hinting at the Israeli defiance of the widely accepted two-state solution that was endorsed by the United States, European Union, and the Arabs.

Netanyahu also called for Egypt's cooperation in jointly fighting terrorism.

"I hope you will help us fight extremists...the Israelis want peace with all Arab nations," he said, adding "the conflicts in the Middle East are not between religions."

"It is a conflict between moderates and hard-liners, between those who call for life and those who call for death," he said, referring to the Islamic Republic of Iran and regional militant groups, namely Hamas and Hezbollah.

However, Mubarak and Netanyahu fell short of expressing common views on Iran, a topic which was expected earlier by Israeli government sources to top their agenda.

For years, Israel has made no secret of its fears that the Islamic Republic wishes to destroy the Jewish state. Lieberman has said it is Iranians, not Israelis or Palestinians, that block the peace deal.

Egypt and Shiite Iran do not have full diplomatic relations since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, when Iran cut ties after the then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat hosted the deposed Iranian shah in Cairo.

The Israeli prime minister was accompanied by Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer while the hawkish Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who has sour relations with Egypt did not attend the meeting.