THE HILTON hotel in Taba hosted some of the first and the last Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, beginning with the tentative and hopeful discussions of 1993 and ending in their bitter collapse nine years later.

But the hotel was itself the subject of intense diplomatic wrangling as a sideshow to Israel's peace deal with Cairo when both sides claimed ownership as the Sinai desert was handed back to Egypt.

The hotel was built by an Israeli, Eli Paposhido, yards inside what would become the border. Today it towers over the Egyptian immigration post but 22 years ago Israel fought to keep the hotel, then called the Avia Sonesta, in its territory. But the peace agreement with Egypt was clear.

The mayor of the neighbouring Israeli town of Eilat demanded the hotel be demolished so that it did not compete with hotels in his jurisdiction. But Mr Paposhido was forced to sell his hotel to the Egyptian government, which then sold it to the Hilton group.

The Israeli employees were sacked and replaced with Egyptian staff. Under a special agreement, Israeli guests did not need visas. The Hilton had a special desk before immigration to escort them past officials on the short walk to the casinos that helped keep the hotel packed for much of the year.

The Israeli guests may have technically stepped into a foreign country - and an Arab one at that - but many said that even after Israel handed back the Sinai they felt at home visiting it.-Dawn/The Guardian News Service.