Russian foreign minister to meet his U.S. counterpart in Egypt

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Tuesday he would hold his first meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Cairo on February 24. Among other outstanding issues, the meeting will focus on a bitter US-Russia dispute over Washington's plans to build a national nuclear missile defence shield, Mr. Ivanov said. "We are ready to take into consideration any of the concerns from our partner (the United States) to find a common solution" to the NMD debate, Ivanov is quoted by AFP as saying following a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.