By DPA,
Cairo: US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected in Cairo Tuesday for a two-day visit, during which she would meet with the country’s transitional leadership and opposition.
Clinton, the highest-ranking US official to visit Egypt since former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last month, is scheduled to meet with foreign minister Nabil el-Araby shortly after her arrival.
She will also meet with members of civil society and opposition groups, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Cairo said. There was no indication she would meet with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Clinton will meet with Egypt’s Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, now in charge of the country, and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf before departing to Tunisia Wednesday.
In her meetings, Clinton is expected to stress the importance of democratic transition in the country, including the holding of free and fair elections.
Clinton arrives in Cairo after an overnight stop in Paris for talks on Libya with the Group of Eight (G8), which continued Tuesday in her absence.
Before leaving Paris, she met with a representative of the Libyan rebel-led Transitional National Council, which has been calling for a no-fly zone and airstrikes against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.