| 17.05.2008 | 14:00 UTC
Bush arrives in Egypt for talks with Mubarak, Abbas
US President George W. Bush has arrived in the Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh for talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Their talks were expected to focus on the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and the Middle East peace process. On Friday, Bush failed to convince Saudi Arabia to increase oil production. This is the second time this year that Saudi officials have rebuffed an appeal from Bush to step up production in an effort to bring down global oil prices. However, following a meeting between Bush and Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh, Saudi officials said that they had recently increased oil production by 300,000 barrels per day. Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of oil has hit a new record high of more than US $127.
