Mubarak eyes Palestinian state in 2008

"I'm convinced of that. I see the most likely time as 2008, at the end of President Bush's second term," Mubarak told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, according to an advance copy of an interview to be published on Sunday.

Mubarak said he expected Israel's new coalition government, due to be finalised on Saturday, to see through Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

"The contacts we have had with Sharon in recent weeks have indicated he is willing to move ... Everything suggests the coalition government will see through the Gaza pullout," Mubarak said.

Asked about the opposition of Israeli settlers in Gaza to the plan, Mubarak noted settlers had also been forced to leave Sinai before it was returned to Egypt.

Mubarak's comments came as his foreign minister criticized an Israeli raid into southern Gaza, saying Israel must show restraint and good intentions if it wants a breakthrough toward peace with the Palestinians in 2005.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Egypt was "deeply concerned" at Israel's military operations, which led to the death of nine Palestinians on Friday, including six militants. Israel said it was responding to Palestinian mortar attacks.

"He (Aboul Gheit) called on the Israeli government to stop these practices immediately and to exercise self-restraint so that the right atmosphere can be created to launch the peace process in a positive way," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

The Israeli raid into Khan Younis in south Gaza has driven hundreds of Palestinians from their homes. At least two of those killed on Friday were civilians, medics and witnesses said.

AFP adds: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has warned the United States against attacking Iran, saying such a move would be a "catastophic mistake," after US President George W. Bush cautioned Tehran and Syria against "meddling" in Iraq.

"If the United States were to attack Iran, it would be a catastrophic mistake," Mubarak said in an interview due to be published on Monday in the German weekly Der Spiegel.

"Terror and violence would be imposed throughout the Middle East and shortly afterwards in the whole world," he said in Hamburg.