CAIRO - Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul was received by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on Monday.
Following the meeting, Gul, who is currently paying an official visit to Egypt prior to the meeting of foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul between 14 and 16, 2004, said that he came to Egypt to convene Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's written message to President Mubarak.
He stressed that the message included issues about Cyprus, adding, ''in his message, President Sezer explained recent developments in Cyprus and asked President Mubarak's support.''
Gul said that he had informed President Mubarak on the upcoming meeting of foreign ministers of OIC in Istanbul. He asked President Mubarak's support for Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu, the candidate of Turkey to the position of OIC secretary general.
''Turkey has some reasonable and rightful requests. We will not be a burden for our friendly countries. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan has also revealed the rightfulness of the Turkish Cypriot side,'' he stressed.
Noting that the issues of Iraq and Israeli-Palestinian dispute were discussed at the meeting, Gul told reporters that the bilateral relations between Turkey and Egypt were also taken up in detail.
He recalled that efforts had been under way to make a free trade agreement between Turkey and Egypt.
Gul is expected to depart from Cairo later in the day after meeting with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.
(UK-AÖ) 07.06.2004