“We will do whatever is needed on our part,” Aboul Gheit said before he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed Egypt’s offer to help in Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

“We have a lot ahead of us,” Rice said at a joint news conference after they met at the State Department. She emphasized the Palestinians and Israel had the primary responsibility: the Palestinians to fight terror, Israel to help improve living conditions on the West Bank and in Gaza.

Rice also renewed her demand that the two sides implement President Bush’s 2002 “road map” for peacemaking.

On a discordant note, Rice said she had raised with the foreign minister “our very strong concerns” about the arrest of the head of Egypt’s opposition party on forgery charges.

Rice said the detention of Ayman Nour, leader of the al-Ghad, or Tomorrow Party, was important to the administration, Congress and the American people. She said she had taken it up with Aboul Gheit “at some length.”

Egypt will not send its own forces into the territory Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to begin turning over to the Palestinians later this year because there would be a risk of Egyptian casualties, Aboul Gheit said.

But besides deploying border guards, the foreign minister said Egypt would send a few security officials to Gaza to assess the needs of Palestinian security forces, bring senior Palestinians to Egypt for training and ask Israel to approve stationing two Egyptian battalions along its border to guard against two-way smuggling.

“We have to keep pushing for implementing the Israeli pullout” from Gaza and northern parts of the West Bank, Aboul Gheit said.

Egypt, which helped Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reach a truce Feb. 8, is interceding with Syria to stop Hamas and other militant groups from attacking Israel, he said.

And without providing any specifics, Aboul Gheit said Egypt was making headway with Syria on restraining militants and there would be further talks with Damascus.

On another issue, the foreign minister said he did not think it was a good idea to have a high-profile US mediator assigned to the Middle East.

Aboul Gheit said he was hoping President Bush or Rice would themselves take on the role of promoting further peacemaking in the region.

“I want them engaged,” he said. “We are really aiming at an end game,” an overall settlement between Israel and the Palestinians - although it will take time, he added.

Sharon said Tuesday that Israel is prepared to make “painful compromises for peace” and has begun coordination with Palestinians on Israel’s planned pullout from the Gaza Strip. But even as he spoke, Palestinian security officials reported that Israeli troops on patrol in the West Bank village of Beitunia shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who threw stones at them.