20110315
reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday began the highest-level visit to Egypt by a U.S. official since an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak, for decades a close ally of Washington.

She is expected to urge the military rulers to whom Mubarak handed power on February 11 to lay the ground for a genuine transition to democracy and offer support to the Egyptians whose mass uprising swept him from office.

One coalition of pro-democracy activists said it had turned down an invitation to meet Clinton in protest at U.S. policy towards Egypt and the U.S. position on the anti-Mubarak revolt. Mubarak crushed opposition during his three decades in power.

U.S. President Barack Obama lavished praise on the protesters the day Mubarak stepped down but it was too little too late for the Egyptian activists, who felt his administration gave Mubarak too much support during the uprising.

The January 25 coalition, made up of six youth groups, said in a statement that Clinton was not welcome "because the U.S. administration long supported Mubarak's corrupt, dictatorial regime financially, politically and morally".

They also called for a more balanced relationship between Cairo and Washington, whose influence they blame for shaping Egyptian policies including their country's role in enforcing the blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

"We Egyptians, after regaining authority over our land, will only settle for mutual equitable relations based on autonomy, friendship and respect that is reciprocated between both the American and Egyptian nations," it said.

A cautious approach during the uprising put the U.S. administration out of step with protesters and Washington was criticised for being slow to grasp the scale of the upheaval.