CAIRO (AFP) - The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Monday urged Egypt and the Arab League to press Israel to allow reconstruction equipment into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

"I am in Cairo to discuss the situation in Gaza and to call on the Cairo government and the Arab League to continue pressure on the state of Israel to lift entry restrictions on people and construction equipment," he told AFP.

Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since the Islamist movement Hamas ousted loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fateh Party, taking control of the enclave in June 2007.

Israel launched a 22-day war on Gaza that ended on January 18, 2009, and killed about 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis also died during the offensive which devastated the already impoverished coastal enclave.

Israel refuses to let construction materials into Gaza for fear that Hamas would use it for military purposes.

Grandi, who was appointed commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees on January 20, on Sunday met Arab League chief Amr Musa and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.

Egypt is the current president of UNRWA's Advisory Commission, a committee grouping 23 countries tasked with assisting in the agency's work.