"We as Egyptians have a responsibility to lay the foundations for peace...We cannot rebuild Egypt ... while adopting an adventurous foreign policy"

Outgoing Arab League chief and Egyptian presidential hopeful Amr Moussa on Tuesday seemed to be allaying Israel’s fears concerning its peace treaty with Egypt assuring that he would maintain it if he were to win in elections later this year.

"We as Egyptians have a responsibility to lay the foundations for peace...We cannot rebuild Egypt ... while adopting an adventurous foreign policy," he said according to the Associated Press, adding "we would be kidding ourselves" if Egyptians didn't recognize ‘Israel’ as a state.

Moussa added, however, that he would reconsider the terms of a deal by which Egypt supplies Israel with natural gas.

The 74-year-old told a crowd of youth at a cultural center late on Tuesday that he wanted Egyptian presidential elections to come before people vote for a new parliament and said he would run for president for only one term.

An online poll on the website of al-Ahram daily newspaper last week showed Moussa with a big lead over Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel prize-winning former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The military rulers, who run the country after mass protests forced Mubarak out of office on Feb. 11, said it planned to transfer power to civilian rule by holding a parliamentary vote then a presidential one within six months.

"Egypt is on the right track and the revolution could not be defeated but there are obstacles," Moussa said, adding: "There should be a cancellation of emergency law and we should all fight corruption". He defended the right of the Brotherhood to political participation. "We have to move away the principle of rejecting the Brotherhood or any other group... leave it to the people to choose who they want," said Moussa.