WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration has greeted Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher by reviewing Cairo's intermediate-range missile cooperation with North Korea.

Administration officials said the White House and State Department urged Maher to end the cooperation with North Korea on the development of intermediate-range missiles. This included Egypt's plans to purchase 50 No Dong missile engines. The No-Dong has a range of up to 1,300 kilometers. The administration also appealed to Maher for Egypt to sign the Missile Technology Control Regime. The MTCR limits the sale and development of missiles that are more than 300 kilometers in range.

Maher, the officials said, reiterated Egypt's position that it has ended cooperation with North Korea. The foreign minister did not commit Egypt to signing the MTCR, Middle East Newsline reported.

U.S. officials said Egyptian-North Korean has become an important issue for the Bush administration. They said the issue would be raised during talks later this year with Egyptian Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi.

For the first time, U.S. administration spokespersons acknowledged that the North Korean missile issue was discussed with Egypt. This included Maher's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday.

Neither was asked about Egyptian-North missile cooperation in a session with reporters after the State Department meeting.

"They raised it," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

"They'll continue to raise it. It's an important subject. I think the foreign minister recognized that, acknowledged that, as well as the secretary, that both countries have a strong interest in focusing on nonproliferation and keeping an eye on those issues."

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