Almotamar.net Turkish Press - US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said Wednesday he had held talks with President Hosni Mubarak and his Egyptian counterpart Hussein Tantawi on Middle East peace efforts and weapons sales.
Gates, speaking to reporters after the Cairo meetings with Mubarak and Defence Minister Tantawi, described the talks as "wide ranging".
They also spoke about Iraq "at some length, and the need to support" the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, he said.
Gates, who arrived in Egypt a day later than expected after a sandstorm shut the main airport here on Tuesday, also said the officials "reviewed the very robust military relationship" between the two countries.
The United States gives over a billion dollars in military aid to Egypt every year.
Gates, on a tour of the volatile Middle East that began on Monday in Amman, also said he discussed with the Egyptian officials Iran's growing strength in the region.
Iran and the situation in Iraq also featured in his talks with King Abdullah II in Amman on Tuesday and the topics are sure to be on the agenda when he meets with Israeli officials on the third leg of the tour later in the week.
Egypt will host a gathering of ministers of Iraq's neighbors in Sharm el-Sheikh on May 3 and 4. The event will include five of Iraq's six neighbours -- Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey -- plus Bahrain, Egypt, the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the United Nations.
Iran has not confirmed its participation. Tehran is demanding the release of Iranian personnel captured in Iraq. US officials say the captives are elite Iranian commandos; Iran says they are diplomats.
Other participants at the event will include Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
"The neighbours conference was an important step," said Gates earlier in Amman. "Anything that the neighbours can do to help strengthen the current government of Iraq will be a contribution."
A senior Defence Department official speaking on condition of anonymity said ahead of the Cairo stopover that Gates would also "encourage Egypt to reassert its leadership role" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
The official said discussions would also focus on arms supplies.
The Egyptians are "especially sensitive" to a possible drop in military aid due to the rise in US expense in Iraq, the Defence Department official said.
Gates "will reassure them that regardless of the war our relationship with Egypt is a long one and is one that will continue."
Concerning military aid, Gates will encourage the Egyptians "to (make a) transition from the post-Soviet dependency on conventional weaponry to something more expeditionary, more related to counter-terrorism and focused on the non-state actors" in the region, the official said.
The annual US military and economic aid was partly initiated to reward Egypt for the 1979 peace treaty it signed with Israel. Since then Egypt has received upwards of 30 billion dollars in US military assistance.
Egypt, however, is also one of the main sources of foreign fighters entering Iraq, according to US Major General William Caldwell, who told reporters in Baghdad that US forces had "several hundred foreign fighters in captivity ... and the greatest number come out of Egypt."
The top four main sources of foreign fighters in Iraq are Egypt, Syria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, Caldwell said.