Cairo  - Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak departed for Washington on Saturday, his first visit to the US capital in five years.

Mubarak is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday for discussions on reviving stalled Israeli- Palestinian peace talks, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

Egyptian intelligence officials have been brokering reconciliation talks between rival Palestinian factions Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which controls Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank.

Without a unified Palestinian government, it is unclear who would represent the Palestinians in future peace talks with the Israelis.

"The nuclear file in the region" would also figure in Tuesday's discussions, MENA said.

Egypt has advanced a plan to make the Middle East a "nuclear- weapons-free zone," including tighter international monitoring of Iran and Israel's nuclear programmes.

Obama first met Egypt's president on June 4, ahead of the US president's speech to the Muslim world from Cairo.

Mubarak had been scheduled to meet Obama in Washington in May, but cancelled that visit following the death of his grandson, Mohammed Alaa. (dpa)