The United States has long relied on Egypt's role as a mediator in the region, most crucially in trying to reconcile rival Palestinian factions.

But those efforts are stalled and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rushed to Cairo to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today - a clear sign of concern that Egyptian and Arab support for Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts may be waning.

Clinton, who extended her Mideast trip by a day to come to Cairo, arrived in Egypt yesterday at one of the lowest ebbs in three decades of Egyptian-Israeli peace.

Over the last month, Egypt has been scaling back its already limited contacts with Israel in an apparent protest over Israel's refusal to halt Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Egypt has tried to keep Israelis away from several international forums and censured an academic for meeting Israel's ambassador to Cairo.

Egyptians have also bitterly blamed Israel for their culture minister's loss of the top post at the U.N. culture agency, UNESCO, and even for attempts by African countries to grab a bigger share of the Nile's waters.

"If generally they have been cool, now their ties seem to be frosty," said Samir Ghattas, head of the Cairo-based Maqdus Center for Strategic Studies.

Israel acknowledged the Egyptian frictions but tried to play them down, contending that the hard line against the Jewish state comes more from Egyptian society than from Egypt's government.

Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, in 1979, and though ties have never been warm, Egypt has played a critical role as Mideast peace mediator.

The Egyptians helped end the Gaza war early this year. More recently, Egyptian and German mediators brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 20 Palestinian female prisoners for the first video images of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit since he was captured in a cross-border raid from Gaza in 2006.

The deterioration of relations poses another obstacle to the Obama administration's plan for Egypt and other Arab countries to forge a regional peace deal.

Other Arab countries - most of which refuse contact with Israel - have rejected the U.S. call for small steps toward normalization with Israel that could create a better environment to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Palestinians are demanding a total settlement freeze before they will return to talks, suspended since late last year.

Clinton angered Arabs this week when she lauded Israel for what she called an "unprecedented" offer to curb Jewish settlements on lands Palestinians hope to incorporate in a future state.

Arab governments interpreted her comments in Jerusalem as a tilting of U.S. policy toward Israel. On Monday in Morocco, Clinton issued what she called a clarification, saying her words in Jerusalem were meant as "positive reinforcement" for the Israelis.

In a new stumble yesterday, an apparent slip of the tongue in an interview with the al-Jazeera network, Clinton referred to the goal of "an Israeli capital in East Jerusalem."

It has not been U.S. policy to favor including East Jerusalem in an Israeli capital. The Palestinians claim it as their capital, and the issue is one of the most delicate points that would have to be settled in any final peace deal.

Two Clinton aides alerted her to the mistake and that portion of the interview was retaped so she could correct herself.

House Condemns U.N. Gaza Report

The House yesterday condemned a U.N. report alleging war crimes during last winter's Gaza war that Israel has vehemently rejected.

The report faults both Israeli forces and Palestinian extremists, but the nonbinding resolution, passed on a 344-36 vote, dismissed it as "irredeemably biased and unworthy

of further consideration or legitimacy."

The resolution urges President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "to oppose unequivocally any endorsement" of the report. The U.N. General Assembly is to take up the report today.

All area representatives voted in favor of the measure, except Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.) and Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), who were among 30 who did not vote. Twenty-two voted "present."

Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), one of two Muslims in Congress, said the "resolution should be opposed because it suppresses inquiry - inquiry, that

is the hallmark of democratic societies."

- Associated Press