RAFAH, Feb 2: Hardline senior Hamas leader Mahmud al-Zahar said on Saturday his movement will work with Cairo to gradually bring order to the breached border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

“We will work towards controlling the border between us and Egypt ... This has to be done gradually,” Zahar told reporters as he crossed back into Gaza after two days of talks with officials in Cairo.

He added that the border would be under control by Sunday.

“We have concluded an agreement between us and our brothers in Egypt to operate channels at the local level at the crossing and along the border and we will implement it tomorrow after we meet with the (Hamas-run) government.” Cairo has not yet commented on the talks, which followed a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas.

An official in Abbas’s Palestinian Authority denied that Egypt had made an agreement with Hamas.—AFP