The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton should travel to Egypt in the next few weeks despite the Cairo government's reluctance to receive foreign visitors, an EU official said on Wednesday.
EU leaders have asked Ashton to visit Cairo to meet government officials and opposition groups to examine how Europe can support a transfer of power to a broad-based government.
"The Egyptian foreign minister has said he doesn’t want foreign visitors in Cairo in February because they are too busy," a senior EU official said.
"Frankly, I can hardly imagine the Egyptians cannot receive the (EU) high representative by the end of this month."
At a summit in Brussels last week, EU leaders condemned violence in Egypt during a popular uprising against Presdient Hosni Mubarak and called for an immediate and peaceful transition of power.
