An Israeli official landed in Cairo on Sunday for Egypt-mediated truce talks with Hamas to end the Gaza conflict, Egyptian security officials said.

The official landed in a small plane at 1100 GMT and was quickly escorted away by intelligence personnel, the security officials said.

The family of a Palestinian-Jordanian journalist missing in Syria for more than three months has appealed for help in securing his release, Beirut-based media rights watchdog SKeyes said on Sunday.

"Nasser al-Kadumi, brother of (U.S. broadcaster) Al-Hurra correspondent Bashar Fahmi al-Kadumi... called for the assistance of everyone able to help ensure his release," a statement said.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday that Israel would not negotiate a truce with Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers as long as rocket fire continues from the Palestinian enclave.

"The first and absolute condition for a truce is stopping all fire from Gaza," he said before meeting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, adding that all militant factions in Gaza would have to commit to cease rocket fire.

U.S. President Barack Obama Sunday said it was "preferable" for the Gaza crisis to be ended without a "ramping up" of Israeli military action, as fears mounted of a new invasion of the Hamas-run territory.

"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said, adding, "if that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that is preferable".

The Gaza-based offices of a Kremlin-funded international Russian TV broadcaster were severely damaged Sunday in an Israeli raid on two buildings housing Palestinian and other media outlets, the station said.

The Israeli army confirmed attacking the Shurouq center in Gaza City in an attempt to interrupt what it said was Hamas "operational communications" from the building.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said in an interview on Sunday he welcomed efforts by his Egyptian counterpart to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict but accused Hamas of rejecting the proposals.

He also said he could forsee a scaling back of the situation and stressed that Israel was taking great pains not to hit civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Rescue crews in Dubai safely evacuated a 34-story residential tower Sunday after a fire gutted portions of the building, police said.

The blaze charred the outside of the structure and sent gray smoke drifting over a major development known as Jumeirah Lakes Towers, a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings and shops on the southern edge ofDubai.

An Arab League delegation headed by the bloc's chief Nabil al-Arabi will visit Gaza on Tuesday in a show of support for the territory in the face of Israeli air strikes, a league official said.

"The Arab ministerial delegation formed by the Arab foreign ministerial council will visit Gaza on Tuesday, headed by Nabil al-Arabi," the official said in a statement .

Damascus deems hostile a decision by France to host an ambassador from the newly formed Syrian opposition National Coalition, a Syrian minister said in key regional ally Iran on Sunday.

"France is acting like a hostile nation," Ali Haidar, minister for national reconciliation, told Agence France Presse.

A ground invasion of the Gaza Strip would lose Israel much international sympathy and support, British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Sunday.

Hague told Sky News television it was much more difficult to limit civilian casualties in a ground assault and it would threaten to prolong the conflict.