(Adds issues the meeting will discuss, paragraph 7)

By Alaa Shahine

CAIRO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Egypt has invited several world leaders for talks on Sunday on the violence in Gaza after signs Israel may halt its military campaign in the coastal enclave.

Participants at the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh include Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The talks, announced on Saturday, appears to anticipate an Israeli decision later in the day to halt the military offensive on the Gaza Strip without an agreement with Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the enclave.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a televised speech, called on Israel to end its offensive immediately and withdraw its troop from the strip.

The state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Mubarak and asserted Israel's "positive response" to the ceasefire call.

Israeli officials and media said Olmert was not expected to attend the meeting in Egypt.

The talks will tackle issues such as finding ways to restore the truce between Israel and Hamas, and to lift the Israeli-led blockade on the strip, MENA reported.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza, that have the stated aim of halting rocket salvoes from the enclave, have killed at least 1,200 Palestinians. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians, hit by Palestinian rockets from Gaza, have also died.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Turkish President Abdullah Gul are due to attend the talks.

Western diplomats said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was expected to attend. The United States, the European Commission, Russia will also send representatives, they added.

Analysts and diplomats say the gathering appears to be an attempt to vindicate Egypt, which has come under harsh criticism in the Arab world for cooperating in the blockade on Gaza by refusing to open its Rafah border crossing for normal traffic.

"This is to say that the centre of movement, the centre of gravity, is in Egypt," political analyst Emad Gad said.

Egypt has been leading efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. It proposed a ceasefire, followed by a long truce and the opening of the Gaza border crossings.

Hamas countered by offering a year-long, renewable truce on condition that Israeli forces leave Gaza within a week and all the border crossings with Israel and Egypt are opened.

In addition to declaring a unilateral ceasefire, Israeli officials said they expected Israel and Egypt to reach an agreement on increased security along the Gaza-Egyptian border.

Israel and the United States signed a pact on Friday aimed at stopping the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Britain, France and Germany have offered to send warships to help in the effort.

But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Cairo was not bound by the agreement, and Mubarak reiterated his rejection to the idea of having foreign observers on Egyptian soil, saying this was a "red line" that cannot be crossed. (Additional reporting by Adam Entous in Jerusalem, and Louis Charbonneau in Lebanon, writing by Alaa Shahine)

AlertNet news is provided by