Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to hold talks Friday in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Arab-Israeli conflict and a US initiative to push for democratic reforms in the Middle East.
Mubarak is expected to arrive Thursday in the Russian capital from Romania, for his third official visit to Moscow since he came to power in 1981.
Diplomatic sources in Cairo said the two leaders will discuss the fate of the grounded Middle East peace roadmap, the transfer of sovereignty from the US-led coalition to the Iraqis on June 30 and a US-proposed reforms for the Middle East.
US President George W. Bush is hoping to use a summit of the Group of Eight (G8), which he hosts on June 9 in Georgia, as a springboard for the scheme known as the Greater Middle East Initiative.
Bush "looks forward to a discussion of how the G8 can support political, economic and social freedom in the broader Middle East and North Africa," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday.
But the US plan to spread political and economic reforms in the region has been frowned upon by Arab leaders, who earlier this month pushed for their own reforms programme at their summit in Tunis.
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