BEIRUT, (PIC)-- The chairman of the Arab committee to lift the siege on Gaza and former Lebanese premier, Dr. Salim Al-Hoss, has appealed to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to open the Rafah border terminal.

Hoss, speaking after a meeting for the committee in Beirut on Monday, said that Rafah was the only remaining outlet for the people of Gaza after the Israeli occupation sealed all other crossings.

The committee"s chairman said that he delivered a message addressed to Mubarak to the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Ahmed Al-Bideiwi in which the committee beseeched the president to reconsider the closure of the Rafah border terminal and to allow freedom of movement for the Gaza population in and out of the Strip.

Hoss pointed out that many wish to leave Gaza for health, living and other vital reasons.

The former premier described the inter-Palestinian division as "painful", and asked both Fatah and Hamas factions to meet and discuss means of reaching a compromise formula.