Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday met here with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on latest developments in Iraq and preparations for two international conferences on Iraq in early May.

Maliki, who arrived here earlier in the day on his first visit to Egypt as prime minister, held talks with Mubarak at Egypt's Heliopolis presidential palace Sunday morning.

The meeting dealt with the latest developments on the Iraqi arena and Egypt's efforts to contribute to achieving stability in Iraq, according to MENA, the Egyptian official news agency.

The talks also touched on preparations for the upcoming conferences on Iraq to be held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh on May 3-4, the report added.

Maliki is also scheduled to meet Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa in the day during his regional tour to rally support for his government and its efforts to reduce widespread sectarian violence in the war-torn country.

After talks in Egypt, Maliki is expected to visit Kuwait and other regional states for preparatory talks ahead of the Iraqi meetings in Egypt, said Iraqi officials.

Iraq's neighboring countries conference will be attended by Egypt, Turkey and Jordan along with the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the G8 members, MENA added.

Another international meeting for the International Compact with Iraq, which is a larger group, also would be held in Egypt back to back to the first meeting.

Source: Xinhua