Israel and Egypt have reached a basic agreement on an Israeli pullout from the Philadelphi route, where Egypt is to provide security, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Thursday after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak demanded in the meeting that Israel pull its troops out of the zone, located on the border between Gaza and Egypt, when it withdraws its military and settlements from the Gaza Strip as part of the disengagement plan scheduled to take place this summer.

Israel has said it will eventually leave the zone - but not immediately - owing to the ongoing weapons smuggling by Palestinians through tunnels across the border.

Asked if there were disagreements about the route, Mofaz told reporters there was "some disagreement we faced about Philadelphi." But after talks with Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mofaz said, "I think that we reached basic agreement. We need another meeting to finalize this issue."

Egypt has offered to deploy 750 national guards along its border with the Gaza Strip to help maintain security after Israel pulls out of Gaza, but says it will deploy them only after Israel removes its troops from the buffer zone, which has been a scene of the most intense Israeli-Palestinian fighting over the past four years.

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