U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Egypt on Monday as part of a regional tour that will also take him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Cheney was received by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazef at the airport, according to Egypt's official MENA news agency.

The U.S. vice president is expected to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday before travelling to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

U.S. officials in Washington said that Cheney is to discuss the war in Iraq, the upcoming Palestinian elections, the war on terror and other pressing issues in the Middle East region when he meets with leaders of the U.S. allies.

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