Bush heads to Egypt

2008-01-16 08:29

Sharm El Sheikh - United States President George W Bush was set to make a three-hour visit to Egypt on Wednesday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on the last stop of his eight-day visit to the Middle East.

Bush was expected to arrive in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh around midday and head straight into talks with his ally, Mubarak, on a stop that was seen as more protocol than politics.

The lightning visit came at the end of a tour, which had seen the US president try to drum up Arab support for the revived peace process as well as Washington's face-off with Iran.

Relations with Egypt had taken a downturn over Washington's criticism of Egypt's perceived failure to secure its border with the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had urged Cairo to do more to stop arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory, which had been under the control of Islamist group Hamas since June.

Bush off to Saudi Arabia

The US Congress last month froze $100m in aid until Rice could certify that Cairo was doing enough to stem the arms flow.

Bush was due to arrive from Saudi Arabia after breakfasting with members of the royal family at his friend King Abdullah's ranch outside Riyadh.

The US president used his two-day visit to the world's biggest oil producer to press for increased oil output on world markets to help ease recession fears at home.

He told reporters before a dinner with the king on Tuesday that he planned to discuss "the fact that oil prices are very high, which is tough on our economy".

Bush said: "And that I would hope, as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) considers different production levels, that they understand that if their - one of their biggest consumers' economy suffers - it will mean less purchases, less oil and gas sold."

Bush faces difficulty

Opec was due to meet in Vienna on February 01 under pressure to calm prices after shrugging off calls to increase output at its last meeting in December.

Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi later announced: "We will raise production when the market justifies it, this is our policy."

But Bush faced difficulty in convincing his Saudi hosts to wholeheartedly support the twin pillars of his Middle East tour - greater backing from Arab states for the revived Middle East peace process and a willingness to confront the "threat" of Iran.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal gave a cool response to Bush's request, made in Jerusalem last week, that Arab countries "reach out" to Israel to boost the revived Middle East peace talks.

"I don't know what more outreach we can give to the Israelis," the minister told a press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Faisal also said Saudi Arabia had "nothing bad" against its powerful neighbour, Iran. "Iran is a neighbouring country, an important country in the region. Naturally we have nothing bad against Iran," said Faisal.

- AFP