Moussa says he would maintain Egypt's peace with Israel

Outgoing Arab League chief and Egyptian presidential hopeful Amr Moussa on Tuesday suggested that he would maintain the peace treaty with Israel if he were to win in elections later this year, The Associated Press reported.

"We as Egyptians have a responsibility to lay the foundations for peace...We cannot rebuild Egypt ... while adopting an adventurous foreign policy," he said, adding "we would be kidding ourselves" if Egyptians didn't recognize Israel as a state.

Moussa added, however, that he would reconsider the terms of a deal by which Egypt supplies Israel with natural gas.

The Arab League chief said he wanted Egyptian presidential elections to come before people vote for a new parliament and said he would run for president for only one term.

"In my opinion the presidential elections should come before the parliamentary one as the parliament election needs to have strong parties," the 74-year-old told a crowd of youth at a cultural center late on Tuesday.

An online poll on the website of al-Ahram daily newspaper last week showed Moussa with a big lead over Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel prize-winning former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The military rulers, who run the country after mass protests forced Mubarak out of office on Feb. 11, said it planned to transfer power to civilian rule by holding a parliamentary vote then a presidential one within six months.

Critics say this is too quick for parties to get established and gives an advantage to remnants of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, the country's best organized opposition group.

Constitutional reforms, to be finalized by a referendum on on March 19, will stop any president from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms.

"Egypt is on the right track and the revolution could not be defeated but there are obstacles," Moussa said, adding: "There should be a cancellation of emergency law and we should all fight corruption".

He defended the right of the Brotherhood to political participation.

"We have to move away the principle of rejecting the Brotherhood or any other group ... leave it to the people to choose who they want," said Moussa.