CAIRO -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Cairo on Tuesday on the second leg of a Middle East tour fraught with tension and hopes that Washington might finally succeed in securing an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.

As Powell's plane touched down, protests against Israel and the United States continued in Egypt, with more than 20,000 demonstrators gathered at universities in Cairo and the Nile delta city of Tanta, protesting against the foreign minister's tour, Reuters quoted security sources as saying.

Powell flew to Egypt after talks in Morocco, where he heard King Mohammed VI ask icily why he had not headed straight to Jerusalem, while visiting Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said U.S. credibility was collapsing and that the United States must restrain Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Powell is expected to get more of the same when he meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is expected to ask Washington for greater efforts to secure a cease-fire while underlining the importance of direct U.S. talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

A senior state department official traveling with Powell told reporters the secretary of state would seek support in Egypt for coordinated mediation on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, as he had done in Morocco.

The Israeli army pulled out of two West Bank cities under intense U.S. pressure on Tuesday, but raided another village and kept a tight grip on other Palestinian-ruled areas it has occupied as part of an offensive against Palestinian cities to root out suicide bombers and isolate Arafat.

Amid an angry popular outcry, Egypt last week announced it was severing all but diplomatic contacts with Israel, a move which analysts said had more symbolic than practical meaning and which left many Egyptians dissatisfied.