Powell to hear Egypt's frustration

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has arrived in Cairo on the second leg of his Middle East peace mission.
He will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian crisis with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential palace in northern Cairo.

Before he flew in, protesters staged the latest in a series of angry demonstrations against the current Israeli military occupation of Palestinian-administered West Bank towns.


Colin Powell said he needed help to persuade to Palestinians to abandon violence

Hundreds of people held a noisy but peaceful rally outside the Egyptian parliament building, while more than 10,000 students gathered at Al-Azhar Islamic university in the capital.

A BBC correspondent in Cairo says President Mubarak is expected to argue strongly that the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, is crucial to the search for peace in the Middle East.

Mr Powell arrived from Morocco, where his first host, King Mohammed VI, asked bluntly why Mr Powell had not gone straight to Jerusalem.

And Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who was visiting the north African country, warned that American credibility was collapsing as a result of the Israeli military operation.