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Mubarak, Chirac

talks on Mideast

peace process

CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met on Sunday with his French counterpart Jacques Chirac for talks on the Middle East peace process in which Paris is seeking to expand its role, officials said.

The talks were to focus mainly on the Arab-Israeli peace process and the third annual Middle East economic conference, to be hosted by Egypt in November, officals at the president's office said.

Chirac, on his first tour of the Middle East since becoming president last May, spoke in Lebanon Saturday of "France's desire to rediscover in this region a presence and a role which has perhaps been a little eroded over time."

The French president was given a warm welcome in Cairo on Saturday after arriving from Beirut, starting at the airport where Mubarak met his friend of 20 years with an embrace and a red-carpet reception.

Chirac "is a friend who has always stood by us in difficult moments," Mubarak said later that evening as he gave him Egypt's highest medal, the Order of the Nile.

During his three-day visit, Chirac will give an address at Cairo University on France's Mediterranean policy, as well as visit a number of digs by French archaeologists and two giant French construction projects in Cairo.-AFP