"I take this opportunity to reiterate that I am looking forward to exerting our best efforts to get the Middle East peace process back to its right track" ... Egypt's president, Mohamed Mursi.

"I take this opportunity to reiterate that I am looking forward to exerting our best efforts to get the Middle East peace process back to its right track" ... Egypt's president, Mohamed Mursi. Photo: Reuters

JERUSALEM: A friendly letter from the new President of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, to his counterpart in Israel, had been hailed as an unexpected sign that Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood intended to maintain cordial ties with Israel.

That sign was fleeting, however.

In a day of diplomatic confusion that involved not only Egypt and Israel but also the visiting American Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, Egyptian and Israeli officials contradicted each other's accounts of how or even whether the two Presidents had communicated, leaving the state of relations roughly where they began - in uncomfortable uncertainty.

The office of the Israel President, Shimon Peres, first raised expectations on Tuesday when it released a letter it said it had received by fax from Mr Morsi via the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv. The letter thanked Mr Peres for his earlier letter of congratulations at the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and expressed hopes for more co-operation with Israel on peace and security issue

Later in the day, however, an official spokesman for Mr Morsi denied in a statement to an Egyptian newspaper that he had sent any conciliatory messages, and called reports of such a letter ''slander''.

The episode underscored the delicacy of ties between the neighbouring countries, which have maintained a peaceful, if publicly frosty, relationship for three decades but face new tensions as Egypt comes more under the sway of Mr Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, once repressed in Egypt, has long been hostile towards Israel although its leaders have moderated their views in recent months. Among the Egyptian populace, antipathy towards Israel and support for the Palestinians runs deep.

The dispute erupted as Mr Panetta, visiting Egypt and Israel, declared that Mr Morsi was ''his own man'', a sign of American support for a former leader of the Brotherhood.

But the denial, which came after Mr Panetta left Cairo for Jerusalem, raised the possibility that Mr Morsi and his aides were saying different things to different audiences, or that they were unprepared for the public scrutiny that accompanies any public statements he makes on a matter as charged as Egypt's ties with Israel. The President's office has not explained what happened in any detail. But his official spokesman, Yasser Ali, told Al Ahram, the semi-official state newspaper, that Israeli accounts of the exchange were fabricated.

In a scanned copy of the fax, Mr Morsi conveyed his ''deep thanks'' to Mr Peres for his Ramadan greetings. He added, ''I take this opportunity to reiterate that I am looking forward to exerting our best efforts to get the Middle East peace process back to its right track in order to achieve security and stability for all peoples of the region, including that Israeli people.''

The letter bore Mr Morsi's typewritten name at the bottom, but it was not signed by hand. Looking as if it may have been dictated, it came on a plain piece of paper, with no letterhead or insignia of the Egyptian presidency. A cover note from the Egyptian embassy bore the official embassy letterhead.

News of the letter was received with surprise and enthusiasm by some Israeli officials and analysts, and with a degree of sobriety by others reluctant to draw too many conclusions about the future course that Egypt may chart.

The New York Times