TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Egypt has pledged to launch military intelligence cooperation with Israel.

Israeli officials said President Hosni Mubarak has agreed to begin the exchange of intelligence between the Egyptian and Israeli militaries. They said Mubarak as well as Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi said representatives of both militaries would meet to discuss the plan.

Officials said the intelligence exchange would focus on information regarding Al Qaida and related insurgency groups. They said the services of both militaries would discuss threat assessments and ways to combat them.

Another aspect of the agreement was that the Egyptian and Israeli militaries would discuss threats to the Gaza-Egyptian and Israeli-Egyptian border. Officials said the cooperation formed part of an Israeli commitment for a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the eight-kilometer border between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, the focus of weapons smuggling for Palestinian insurgency groups.