Kerry seeks Cairo's support

Kerry, who arrived in the Egyptian capital mid-morning on Saturday local time, was scheduled to meet with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and the head of the Arab League, Nabil Elarabi in the course of the day.

Despite the tensions raised by the Egyptian military's ouster of democratically elected Islamist Preisdent Mohamed Morsi, Washington and Cairo found themselves with something of a common foe.

While Kerry looks to cobble together a coalition to battle "Islamic State" (IS) militants who have seized large swathes of territory in northern Iraq and Syria, Egyptian forces have been fighting Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula who have expressed support for the IS.

However, President el-Sissi was not expected to commit to any major military contribution to the US-led offensive against IS.

Kerry's efforts to forge a coalition have met with some but not universal success.

The top US diplomat failed in his efforts to persuade Turkey to commit to providing concrete support to the coalition. Officials have cited Turkish worries about the fate of almost 50 diplomats seized by IS militants in the northern Iraq city of Mosul as the reason for Ankara's reluctance to get involved.

However, on Thursday, 10 Arab countries pledged to "do their share" to help the US defeat IS militants in northern Iraq and Syria.

Enthusiastic French support

France, on the other hand, appears keen to lend a hand. On Friday, French President Francois Hollande visited Baghdad and according to the country's new prime minister, pledged to join a US-led campaign of air strikes against IS extremists.

"The French president has promised me that his country will participate in the aerial effort against the Islamic State," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a joint press conference in the Iraqi capital.

Hollande is also to host an international conference in Paris on Monday to discuss ways of supporting the efforts of Iraq's new government at combating IS militants.

Germany rules out airstrikes

Berlin has ruled out joining the US-led airstrikes, but a report in Saturday's edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung said Chancellor Angela Merkel was planning to meet with some of her cabinet ministers next week to explore ways that Germany could do more to help stabilize the situation in Syria and northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere moved on Friday to ban all IS activities in Germany. De Maiziere told a press conference in Berlin that radicalized Islamists who had left Germany to fight for IS potentially also posed a threat on German soil.

pfd/shs (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)