Al-Assad visits Egypt within days

The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Maher announced yesterday that President Hosni Mubarak and the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will shortly hold a summit in Egypt.

Maher said that the Mubarak - al-Assad meeting will discuss "issues of concern to the Arab nation," noting that this summit falls in the course of "continued consultations" between the two presidents.

The Egyptian daily al-Ahram said that President al-Assad will arrive in Cairo by the beginning of the week which starts Saturday ( tomorrow ).

The state- run daily added that the two presidents will discuss the two issues of starting the implementation of the Roadmap and events in Iraq. Presidents Mubarak and al-Assad held their last summit meeting on April 20 in Damascus.