CAIRO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday congratulated Israeli Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmertvia phone on his Kadima party's election victory, the official MENA news agency reported.

    During the phone call, Mubarak said that he hoped the coming stage would witness a new push to the Middle East peace efforts, according to the report.

    With 99.7 percent of the ballots counted so far, Olmert's centrist Kadima party has won 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament) in Tuesday's general elections, followed by the center-left Labor party with 20 seats and the ultra-orthodox Shas party, 13 seats, Israel's Central Election Commission said on Wednesday. The Likud party led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a major blow and only got 11 seats.

    Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has long acted as a mediator between the Palestinians and Israelis.

    Mubarak hosted a Palestinian-Israeli summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Feb. 8, 2005, helping the two sides reach a de facto ceasefire agreement after over four years of bloodshed. Enditem