EL-ARISH (Egypt) - EGYPT stopped a senior Hamas official from carrying US$9 million (S$13.54 million) and two million euros (S$3.85 million) into Gaza on Thursday, a security official told AFP.

Officials at the Rafah border crossing had held up a six-member delegation returning from truce talks in Cairo after insisting on searching their bags.

The officials allowed five members to cross, but prevented Gaza-based Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha, who was carrying the cash, from entering Gaza with the money.

After contacting the finance ministry, security officials accompanied Taha to a bank in nearby El-Arish, where he deposited the money in an account before returning to Gaza, the security official said.

On Tuesday, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad - whose West Bank-based government is not recognised by Gaza rulers Hamas - urged Israel to allow cash into the besieged enclave of 1.5 million people to ease its liquidity crisis.

'We are trying to get cash in but Israeli authorities haven't authorised it so far,' Fayyad told journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Hamas has said it plans to distribute 4,000 euros to each family whose home was destroyed and 1,000 euros for each family member killed in the onslaught.

After winning parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas officials crossed into Gaza with cash several times. This was the first to be intercepted since Hamas seized Gaza from rivals Fatah 18 months ago, the security official said.

In December 2006, Hamas' then-prime minister Ismail Haniya was forced to leave US$35 million at the Egyptian side of Rafah. The money was then transferred to a Palestinian Authority account.

On Thursday, Egypt closed the Rafah crossing to all but exceptional cases.

'No humanitarian, media or medical delegations will be allowed through, nor will medical aid deliveries be permitted,' a border official told AFP.

Egypt has been mediating a lasting truce over the territory that would satisfy Israel's demand for an end to weapons smuggling and Hamas's demand for the reopening of Gaza's borders.

Egypt has refused to permanently open the crossing in the absence of EU monitors and representatives of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the leader of Fatah.

Israel, which controls all crossings except Rafah, has since kept the densely populated Gaza closed to all but essential supplies to put pressure on Hamas, which it labels as a terrorist organisation.

In an interview shown later on Thursday with Egyptian television, Taha said Israel had dropped a prior condition that Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit be released before it would end its blockade.

Israel has repeatedly said it will end the blockade, imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June 2007, when Shalit is released.

Taha said Israel had dropped a number of demands since both Hamas and Israel declared ceasefires on Jan 18 to end the recent 22-day war in Gaza.

'Let me say what was proposed in the past and what is proposed now,' Taha said. 'It proposed the tying of Shalit with the issue of the passages, now it no longer proposes that'. The war killed at least 1,330 Palestinians and 13 Israelis and destroyed or damaged 14,000 homes, the UN Development Programme has said.

During the conflict, Egypt allowed aid, medical supplies and some doctors and journalists into Gaza.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Thursday that both he and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed to put 'pressure on both sides' to open the crossings into Gaza.

'We are really very anxious about the situation of the people in Gaza,' Kouchner told a joint press conference in Washington.

Cairo had proposed Thursday as the starting date for a long-term truce, with Hamas saying it would send a delegation back to Cairo on Saturday to give its 'final' response to Egypt's proposal. -- AFP