US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who arrived in Cairo Tuesday evening, has planned to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, disclosed a senior US official traveling with him.  

The meeting will take place in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, without elaborating.

Allawi was already in the Saudi city Jeddah on a three-day visit to the kingdom, where he met Tuesday with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz on the latest developments in the Middle East, security situation in Iraq and cooperation potentials between the two countries.

As well as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Powell, who came to the region from the Hungarian capital of Budapest, is also due to visit Kuwait during his week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2004)