Good afternoon. I am Congressman Steven Israel and I represent New York. I just had an extremely positive and friendly meeting with the President. We were scheduled to meet for a brief period of time, but our conversation went so well that the President asked us to remain for lunch. The meeting took two and a half hours. I emphasized to the President the importance of the relationship between the US and Egypt, the profound impact that Egypt has in the US Congress and my desire as a member of Congress to continue to strengthen the bonds between our two countries. Without Egypt, there cannot be peace and security and prosperity in this region. I believe that most of my colleagues in Congress understand it and appreciate it. I know that President Mubarak has this as a priority.

We also discussed the upcoming visit of President Bush to Egypt. I am the one who urged the President to come here and I am thankful that President Bush has made the decision to spend time with President Mubarak. I think it proves to the whole world that President Mubarak is a critical partner to the United States and I look forward to advancing this partnership. From time to time good friends have certain disagreements but good friends do not allow those disagreements to get in the way of a continued friendship and I come in that spirit. I will be happy to take questions.

Q: We would like to know if you have discussed the suspension of the $100 million of USAID money to Egypt.

Congressman: The Congress has legislation that allows the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to decide whether to make the $100 million available. What is very important to know is that the full level of funding is over $2 billion and that includes military funding and economic assistance. It is entirely possible that Secretary Rice will decide not to provide for those conditions and make that money available. I believe that President Mubarak at this time is affectively addressing many of the issues that are of concern to some members of Congress and I hope, and I expressed to the President my hope, that we will continue to work on those issues together so that we do not have to visit the issue of conditions in the future. I do believe that the steps that have been taken recently, particularly over the past several months, are very positive and very encouraging.

Q: How do you see President Bush's comments commending President Mubarak's decision to send Egyptian troops to Darfur?

Congressman: This did come up with the President. I join President Bush in commending President Mubarak for the resources that he is bringing to the conflict in Darfur. I reiterated that compliment to President Mubarak. Egypt will play, and has played, a very special role with respect to Darfur and the additional resources are very highly regarded by the US Congress and by the President of the United States. I do believe that the rest of the world should follow Egypt in bringing its resources to a very dangerous situation for refugees in Darfur.

Q: Have you discussed with the President the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within the circumstances of the deteriorating situation on the ground?

Congressman: I did spend quite a significant period of time discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We spoke about the importance of President Bush's upcoming visit. I have expressed to my president the importance of more robust engagement with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that is why I believe his visit is a very, very important opportunity to bring sides together and once again an attempt to negotiate an ultimate solution that ensures peace, stability and security. That is something that I know Egypt and Israel and the United States have always shared and will continue to share. As I said to the President, in my office in the United States Congress, I have an original copy of the Camp David accords autographed by President Sadat, Prime Minister Begin and President Carter. So every day I look at that and understand what was necessary in order to achieve peace, and will continue to be necessary in order to achieve peace and security and that is a reminder I think we should all adhere to.

Q: Within your interest in the US-Israeli relations, do you think a peace agreement would be achieved in the year 2008? Also, have you discussed the issue of Israeli captured soldier Galit Shalit?

Congressman: There will be an agreement in 2008 with the participation of President Bush. As I said before, I have urged President Bush to be more aggressive in his personal involvement in this and am thankful that he has decided to do that. I believe, and always believed, that Egypt, Israel and the United States share a common vision of peace, prosperity and security and it is vitally important that President Bush, towards the end of his term, preparing to leave Washington, can do everything possible to prioritize that shared vision. And if he does, in the spirit of friendship, I believe that a solution is possible and viable.

With respect to Shalit, we did not speak extensively about that matter, I believe that its incumbent upon the Palestinians to release that soldier and that the United States takes that very seriously and is hoping for some movement on that, and that will go a long way towards restoring a more stable climate of relations.

Thank you very much.