Cairo - The Egyptian government said Monday that it had made progress in its talks with the militant Palestinian Hamas organization, the official MENA news agency reported.

Tel Aviv/Gaza  - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Monday that "progress" had been made in international efforts to reach a truce in Gaza, but "difficulties" remained.

Israel in the meantime kept up its offensive in Gaza, which entered its third week at the weekend, striking more targets from the air overnight, albeit a smaller number than in the earlier stages of the war.

Beirut  - The Italian contingent in the United Nations Interim Forces in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) Sunday arrested two people disguised as cleaners trying to smuggle "plastic material that could be explosives" into a UN base in southern Lebanon, a UN statement said.

According to a statement from the Italian peacekeeping force, their troops arrested two Lebanese men on charges of smuggling plastic explosives into their headquarters in the southern town of Tebnine.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama on Sunday promised upon entering the White House later in January to begin immediate engagement in finding a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Speaking on US broadcaster ABC, Obama said that "what I am doing right now is putting together the team so that on January 20, starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole."

Obama spoke of "engaging with all of the actors ... to create a strategic approach that ensures that both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations."

Cairo - Egyptian security officers detained 18 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, from their homes in Alexandria shortly before dawn Sunday morning, security

Cairo/Al-Arish, Egypt  - A number of Egyptian security troops were injured by Israeli bombings near the Egypt-Gaza border, al- Arabiya news channel reported.