US President Barack Obama has begun his first trip to the Middle East.

He will first meet Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and later Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In Cairo, the US president will give his long-expected speech to the Islamic world.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on the Egyptian population to frustrate Mr Obama's visit in any way they can. He called the president's trip a major public relations campaign.

On his way home, Mr Obama will stop-over in Europe, where he will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, visit the former Nazi destruction camp Buchenwald and attend the D-Day commemoration in France on Saturday.