CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit has postponed a planned visit to Israel until next month, his ministry said, amid public anger here over the killing of three Egyptian police by the Israeli army.
Abul Gheit had been due to visit on Wednesday along with intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss the Jewish state's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year.
The postponement was agreed in a telephone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom during the night.
"During the telephone conversation, the two officials agreed to fix another date in the first half of December for the visit," the ministry said.
Shalom again apologized for the accidental killing of the three Egyptian policemen on the Israeli-controlled border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had already called President Hosni Mubarak to convey his deep regret over the deaths of the three men, aged 22 to 23, who were carrying out their national service and mistaken for Palestinian militants.
Egypt has demanded an enquiry and called on Israel to take all necessary steps to prevent any recurrence.
But the incident has sparked widespread anger here.
On Saturday, hundreds of students, many of them Islamists, demonstrated on campus in Egypt's second city of Alexandria chanting slogans against Israel and against the presence of its key ally the United States at an Iraq conference that is due to open in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.
The killings were a "crime which cannot be forgiven simply because an apology has been received," said a statement distributed by the organizers.
11/20/2004 - 17:16 GMT - AFP