MIDDLE EAST: The palm trees and tacky architecture of the Las Vegas-style holiday resort of Sharm-El Sheikh on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula was a fitting backdrop for yesterday's Israeli-Palestinian peace summit, Nuala Haughey reports from Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
This self-billed Red Sea riviera, with its waterfront hotel strip and brash casinos, was initially developed by the Israelis during their occupation of the peninsula from 1967 to 1982. Yesterday, the country which a quarter of a century ago made peace with its former enemy, Israel, hosted the Jewish state and its Palestinian neighbours in their latest effort to put old enmities behind them.
The Palestinian President, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, sat at a large circular table and listened seriously through headphones as each man expressed a desire for peaceful futures for the children and grandchildren of their two peoples.
This set-piece summit was never going to be one of euphoria with breathless pledges that the Palestinian intifada was over and peace was just around the corner. And yet it was all the more hopeful for being a modest, down-to-earth gathering with both sides pledging to end violence against each other in a bid to lay a foundation for peace talks to resume.
"The challenges today are large and deep, but the mission is not impossible," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told both men as he opened the summit public session. "If the road is long, we today took the first step."
Egyptian police dressed in black lined the approach road to the Jolie Ville Golf Resort in the Movenpick Hotel where the high-level gathering was held, searching vehicles with sniffer dogs amid concerns that a terror attack could scupper the event.
Golfers took to the hotel's groomed course to tee off under the clear blue skies while a policeman with a machine gun looked down from the roof of the single-storey building.
Israeli spokesmen mingled with journalists waiting outside the hotel to spin the event the way they saw it.
Though they did some spinning of their own, the Palestinians cannot rival the Israeli media machine, and often appear to not even try.
The Israelis said they detected a change of tone for the better on behalf of their Palestinian counterparts and talked about the importance of building a "chemistry" between Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas.
Mr Sharon even invited Mr Abbas to his ranch in southern Israel, an offer which Mr Abbas's recently deceased predecessor, Yasser Arafat, was never privileged to receive. Mr Abbas accepted.