Visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak here on wide-ranging regional and bilateral issues, a presidential source said.

The two leaders discussed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's grave illness, its impact on the Mideast peace process and the upcoming Palestinian and Israeli elections, the source added.

The talks also touched on the latest developments in Iraq which has been struggling to form a national government after the Dec. 15 elections, the international probe of the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and the Syrian-Lebanese relations, according to the source.

He added that bilateral relations also figured high in the talks between Cheney and Mubarak, including negotiations on a U.S.- Egyptian free trade agreement.

Cheney arrived in Cairo on Monday on a regional tour that will also take him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The U.S. vice president is expected to fly to Saudi Arabia, another key regional ally with the U.S. and meet with King Abdullah after talks with Mubarak.

He will then travel to Kuwait to pay respects to Kuwait's late emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Cheney was originally scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt in December as part of a regional trip that took him to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Oman.

He was forced to cut short of the tour and returned to Washington to cast a tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate on a White House-backed spending-cut measure.

Source: Xinhua