The two leaders "stressed the need for a peaceful settlement in order to avoid increasing the number of victims among the Iraqi people, and the destruction of the Iraqi civilisation," Egyptian Foreign minister Ahmed Maher told reporters after the meeting.

The leaders also called on the so-called Middle East quartet -- the United States, the European Union, Russia, the United Nations -- to "shoulder their responsibility in reaching a settlement to the Palestinian question."

They also discussed the peace talks underway in Kenya between the Sudanese government and southern rebels to end the 20-year civil war, the longest in Africa.

Mubarak on Monday received in Cairo the chief of the rebels, John Garang.

SPACE.WIRE