SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, March 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was met with public rejection Wednesday upon his arrival in the Egyptian Red Sea coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the second leg of a regional tour aimed at levying support for the expected American military strike against Iraq.

The Qatari-based Al-Jazeera channel reported that Egyptian lawyers headed to the general prosecutor, calling for the trial of Cheney and U.S. President George W. Bush as war criminals responsible for the atrocities committed against civilians in Afghanistan.

Tens of thousands of university students demonstrated on campus Wednesday, March 13, in the universities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta. They rejected Cheney’s visit and the U.S. plans to strike Iraq. In Cairo alone, at least twenty thousand students held demonstrations, news agencies reported.

Upon his arrival, Cheney announced that Washington is aiming to deny terrorists the "tools of genocide," after defeating the Taliban and putting its allies on the run, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"Our next objective is to prevent terrorists, and regimes that sponsor terror, from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction," Cheney told U.S. and other troops with the multinational peacekeeping force patrolling the Sinai desert following the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

He did not, however, mention Iraq, which Washington claims is developing weapons of mass destruction -- such as nuclear, biological or chemical arms – which, according to the U.S. administration, could be used by "terrorist" groups.

Egypt, like Jordan which Cheney visited prior to his arrival in Sharm el-Sheikh, has urged Washington against striking Iraq in its so-called war on terror, warning of regional instability.

During his stop in Amman, King Abdullah of Jordan warned Cheney that a U.S. attack on Iraq could seriously destabilize the region.

In a statement released by the royal palace, following a meeting with Cheney in the Jordanian capital Amman, King Abdullah said that he hoped instead for "a solution to all outstanding problems with Iraq through dialogue and peaceful means”.

In Egypt, Cheney said the U.S. so-called war on terror has achieved major successes. "In Afghanistan, the terror camps have been destroyed, and will not be rebuilt," Cheney told the peacekeepers based in the southern Sinai desert.

"Afghanistan was only the beginning of a long and unrelenting effort," he warned, though. "This war will end when we and our allies have delivered justice -- in full measure -- and no terrorist group or government can threaten the peace of the world," he said.

On October 7, the United States launched its war on Afghanistan against the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 airline hijackings in the United States.

Saying the allies would hunt them until there is "no place left to hide," he said there were 20 coalition warships patrolling possible Al-Qaeda escape routes in the Persian Gulf.

"America and our friends and allies are on the trail of terrorist groups from the Philippines to the Horn of Africa," he said.

Apart from Jordan and Egypt, Cheney's Arab tour takes him to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Yemen. He will also visit Israel and Turkey.

Cheney's Middle Eastern tour comes ahead of an Arab League summit later this month in Beirut. The U.S. Vice President arrived in Amman after holding talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said that no decision had been taken yet on how to tackle the "threat" allegedly posed by Iraq.

Ahmed Taha al-Nakr, an expert in foreign relations in the Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar, said that the prime objective of Cheney’s tour to the region is to levy support for the planned American military strikes against Iraq and influence the upcoming Arab Summit so that no decisions are taken against the military operations.

Al-Nakr said that Cheney’s efforts come despite an international disapproval -- even amongst U.S. allies. “ For the first time, there’s a disapproval to hit Iraq from the British Labor party that is headed by Prime Minister Tony Blair,” Al-Nakr said. “The European Union and the Arab world are also against such action.”

He said that the decisions of the upcoming Arab summit will not really affect or profoundly influence the American decision to strike Iraq, but could only play a role in mobilizing Arab public opinion.

He added that there is no indication whatsoever that the Arab world will actually take concrete steps or react if Iraq is hit, especially in light of the obvious Arab silence to the daily atrocities committed by the far-right Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon against an entire Palestinian nation.

“In other words, if the Arab world is incapable of taking action in the case of the innocent Palestinian civilians being murdered daily, then why should it act any differently if Iraq was hit,” Al-Nakr said.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said -- in remarks published Wednesday in the London based Arabic daily Al-Hayat -- that "any strike or war against Iran or Iraq will have repercussions on us in Kuwait, which means we are not with those who want to harm the Iraqi people."

"If the United States decides to do something [attack Iraq], I cannot stop it,” Sheikh Sabah said, adding, however: “I hope what you referred to [the possibility of a U.S. strike on Iraq] will not happen ... because any harm to the people of Iraq harms us too.”

Sheikh Sabah, who doubles as first deputy premier, said that although Kuwait hoped there would be no attack, it was bracing for such a possibility and had made contingency plans.

"We believe there would be an influx of refugees, possibly millions of them ... There will [therefore] be emergency committees, and we have made plans for the worst-case scenarios," he said.

The United States has threatened to take military action against Iraq and try to overthrow the Baghdad regime, after U.S. President George W. Bush described Iraq -- in his State of the Union address in January -- as part of an “axis of evil” that also includes Iran and North Korea.