to bring about a new era of reconciliation in our region, to this end, i met first with president mubarak in egypt and king abdullah of jordan to elicit the support of these leaders in expanding the circle of peace. i turn to all arab leaders tonight and i say, let us meet. let us speak of peace. let us make peace. i am ready to meet with you at any time. i am willing to go to damascus, to beirut, to jerusalem, too. illing to go to damascus, to riyadh, to beirut, to jerusalem also. [applause] i call on the >> i call on us to advance an economic peace and it's not a substitute for political peace but it is an important element to achieve it, together we can undertake projects to overcome the scarcities of our region, like water decontamination or to maximize the advantages of this region like developing solar energy, or exploding our geographic location to lay gas and petroleum lines and transportation links between asia, africa and europe. together, we can realize the achievements of the impressive entrepreneurship i see in the persian gulf impresses me very much and i call upon the talen

to this end, i met with president mubarak in egypt, and king abdullah in jordan, to elicit the support of these leaders in expanding the circle of peace in our region. i turn to all arab leaders tonight and i say: "let us meet. let us speak of peace and let us make peace. i am ready to meet with you at any time. i am willing to go to damascus, to riyadh, to beirut, to any place- including jerusalem. i call on the arab countries to co-operate with the palestinians and with us to advance an economic peace. an economic peace is not a substitute for a political peace, but an important element to achieving it. together, we can undertake projects to overcome the scarcities of our region, like water desalination or to maximise its advantages, like developing solar energy, or laying gas and petroleum lines, and transportation links between asia, africa and europe. together we can realize the achievements of the end -- impressive monster proportions i see in the persian gulf. the economic success of the gulf states has impressed us all and it has impressed me. i call on the talented entrepreneu

taking place within a majority muslim country, but i also raised it in discussions with president mubarak of egypt, who has strong diplomatic relations with the country of sudan. i have assigned one of my closest national security advisers, general scott, as a special envoy who has been traveling throughout the region trying to not only solve the immediate humanitarian crisis that exists and that was made worse when president bashir kicked out the government organizations that had been providing assistance. we are working diligently to solve that problem and get assistance back on the ground. but what we have also been doing is trying to reactivate the possibilities of a peace settlement between khartoum and some of the rebels in darfur that would allow the internally displaced people from darfur to start returning to their homes. we have been very active on this issue. we have worked to make sure we have progress and the people of darfur are able to return to their homes and live in peace. >> part of our past experience in germany is obviously the [unintelligible] out of that comes and e

taking place within a majority muslim country, but i also raised it in discussions with president mubarak of egypt who has strong diplomatic relations with the country of sudan. and i've assigned one of my closest national security advisors as a special envoy who has been traveling throughout the region trying to not only solve the immediate humanitarian crisis that exists and that was made worse when president bashir kicked out many of the snalm nongovernmental organizations that have been providing nonhumanitarian assistance. we have been working to solve that immediate problem and get humanitarian assistance back on the ground, but what we've also been doing is to try react vitvate -- reactivate the possibilities of a peaceful -- a peace settlement between car toom and some of the -- khartoum and some of the rebels in dar 23ur -- in darfur that would allow the internally displaced people from darfur to start returning to their homes. so we have been very active on this issue. it may not have received the attention in the press that some of the other issues have, but we are spending a l

>> guest: well, he did that first to visit president mubarak and even that shows the level of importance. the state welcome included a worse and flagging the motorcade. all of the circumstances. they didn't have much time together. a few minutes, a little bit of press available afterwards and not much to it. working on this, working on that, weren't a lot of details. >> host: thank you for helping us see the scenes weekend on the coverage. appreciate your time. >> guest: sure thing. >> host: howard schneider on the ground in cairo watching will collection in a coffee shop. >>> the national governors' association says states are facing their steepest budget cuts in 30 years, spending is projected to fall for the second year in a row. this is a little more of than a half-hour. >> good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the fiscal service of states conference call. at this time all participants are in listen only mode. later we will conduct a question answer session. i will now turn the call over. you may begin. >> thank you. i'm scott pattison, executive director of national assoc