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Hollywood star and sex symbol Sharon Stone on Wednesday kicked off her first visit to Israel in a bid to promote peace and celebrate International Women's Day.
The award-winning actress is in town for five days as a guest of the Peres Center for Peace, a foundation run by Nobel laureate and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres.
Stone told a joint news conference with Peres that she had always wanted to come to Israel, despite the country's security problems, army radio reported.
She also confirmed to reporters a tantalizing tidbit that has already been well publicized about her soon-to-be-released Basic Instinct 2: "Yes -- I am naked in the film."
She later showed off her sporting prowess in a football kickabout with children.
Stone, a successful businesswoman, is slated to visit several projects aimed at promoting peace, including a kindergarten for Israeli and Palestinian children in Jaffa, on the Mediterranean just south of Tel Aviv.
She will also attend several events marking International Women's Day, including what is billed as the first female-led economic conference in Israel.
Stone celebrates her 48th birthday on Friday, when she is to attend an exclusive fund-raising gala organised by the Peres Centre, at which guests will be asked to leave cheques worth 1,000 dollars.
The octogenarian Peres, who is running for election in Israel's March 28 election on behalf of the ruling Kadima party, rejected any suggestions that Stone's high-profile visit would be used for political ends.
"We will never dare use a personality like Stone for politics," the veteran statesman said.
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AFP 081302 GMT 03 06
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