President Hosni Mubarak arrived in Moscow Wednesday for a three-day official visit to meet with his counterpart Vladimir Putin and top Russian officials and businessmen.
"Egypt remains one of our key partners in the Arab and Islamic world," Putin told a news conference after talks with the Egyptian president.
The presidents discussed the Iranian nuclear problem and the current critical situation in the Middle East, including in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan.
"It is important to underline that our approaches to the resolution of the majority of urgent [global] problems coincide," Putin said.
The Russian leader also said that Egypt could contribute to the resolution of the Middle East crisis by joining the work of the Mideast Quartet of international mediators, which comprises Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
"I believe the Quartet's work would only benefit if influential regional forces, including, of course, Egypt, joined the effort," Putin said.
The Russian president also praised booming economic relations between the two countries. He said bilateral trade exceeded $1.6 billion in 2005, and grew 52%, year-on-year, in the first eight months of 2006.
Egypt's Industry and Trade Ministry earlier said bilateral trade could reach $3 billion a year in the near future, with Russian investment increasing more than five-fold, to $250 million from the current $45 million.
Putin told a news conference that the sides discussed a pilot project to set up a Russian special industrial zone in Egypt.
Mubarak said he met with Russian business leaders and discussed ways of developing economic ties.
"We intend to give them [Russian companies] a free economic zone, allowing them to work under a preferential system, and to develop a broad range of production, including pharmaceuticals, work in the oil and gas sphere, and other sectors," Mubarak said.
Mubarak also said Egypt is interested in developing cooperation with Russia in space exploration, peaceful nuclear research and in high technologies.
The authoritarian Egyptian leader, who has ruled his country for 25 years, has long-standing links with Russia and the Soviet Union. A former pilot who served in a bomber squadron, he received part of his training in Kyrgyzstan, and studied at a military academy in Moscow in the 1960s.
