CAIRO - Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Egypt has a key role to play in the battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Kerry met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on Saturday on the latest leg of a regional tour to forge a coalition to battle the armed group.

"It will be our goal ... to degrade and ultimately to defeat [IS] wherever it exists," Kerry said.

The United States says it is "comfortable" it can build an international coalition to fight the Islamic State group, but with Western and Middle Eastern allies hesitant on the specifics, it risks finding itself out on a limb.

The broad concept of a coalition has been accepted in Western capitals and 10 Arab states, including regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

President Barack Obama has unveiled a rough plan to combat Islamic State group fighters simultaneously in Iraq and Syria, thrusting the US directly into two different wars in which nearly every country in the region has a stake. (Source: Aljazeera)

Story Date: September 14, 2014