CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Former US presidential candidate John Kerry said yesterday strong American-Egyptian relations are crucial to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Iraq.

The Democrat senator from Massachusetts met Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo, his latest stop on a two-week Middle East tour that has seen him visit US troops in northern Iraq and witness Sunday's Palestinian elections won by Mahmoud Abbas.

"Egypt is very important to the next steps that have to be taken with respect to Israeli-Palestinian issues (and) with respect to Iraq," Kerry said after meeting Aboul Gheit.

"The whole region is going to be affected by the good relations between our countries."

Egypt is one of Washington's closest Mideast allies and a recipient of billions of dollars in US aid since becoming the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. But relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv remain cool.

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