The United States and Egypt sought on Monday to repair ties strained severely by 18 months of rapid change in the Middle East, culminating in the last two weeks with Egyptian demonstrators overrunning the US embassy in Cairo and US President Barack Obama candidly remarking that the two countries were now neither enemies nor allies.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, in a New York hotel on Monday night, the highest-level meeting between the once-stalwart Middle East partners since a video made in the US ridiculing Islam prompted violent Egyptian protests on the anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. US officials said their discussions sought to strengthen a relationship that both countries see as vital.

They particularly emphasized the importance of ensuring the security of diplomatic installations, said a senior US official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the private meeting and requested anonymity. Morsi was criticized for his slow initial response to the protests that ended with vandalism of the embassy and the US flag torn down, but the official stressed that US officials see the Egyptian government's protection since as reassuring.

Morsi assured Clinton that embassy protection was "Egypt's duty", the official said.

The meeting occurred amid a jam-packed schedule for Clinton in New York, where she is attending this week's annual gathering of the UN General Assembly and speaking with world leaders. Egyptian hopes of a maiden meeting between Morsi and Obama were dashed when the White House announced that the president would not be participating in bilateral meetings during his brief stay in the city. Obama arrived on Monday and was scheduled to leave on Tuesday after his speech to the General Assembly.

Defining choice

With campaign politics shadowing every word, Obama on Tuesday was expected to challenge the world to confront the root causes of rage exploding across the Muslim world, calling it a defining choice "between the forces that would drive us apart and the hopes we hold in common".

Obama was scheduled to step before the UN General Assembly and declare that the US will not shrink from its role in troubled, transitioning nations despite the killing of four Americans in Libya, including US ambassador Chris Stevens, and more than 50 others in violence linked at least in part to the anti-Muslim film.

Obama will also to seek to show US resolve in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, an issue that has undermined White House relations with Israel's leadership.

In his final international address before the November election, Obama will stand up for Western values on a stage afforded to presidents, not presidential challengers. He will use it to try to boost his political standing without ever mentioning Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

If there was any doubt that the ongoing US presidential campaign hung heavy over Obama's speech, Romney shredded it by assailing Obama's foreign affairs leadership on the eve of the president's speech. Now comes Obama's chance to assert his world vision on his terms.

"Today, we must affirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his killers," Obama said of the US ambassador who was killed in Benghazi. "Today, we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations."

The White House released excerpts in advance of Obama's midmorning speech.

Setting a sharp political context for the speech, Romney went on the offensive on Monday.

"This is time for a president who will shape events in the Middle East, not just be merciful or be at the mercy of the events," Romney said. Focusing on the killing of Stevens and mass bloodshed in Syria, Romney repeatedly ridiculed Obama's comment that nations moving toward democracy after the "Arab Spring" face "bumps in the road".

That prompted White House spokesman Jay Carney to fire back at Romney: "There is a certain rather desperate attempt to grasp at words and phrases here to find political advantage, and in this case that's profoundly offensive."

Obama's latest activities at the UN say plenty, too: There are not many of them. Campaigning is his imperative.

He is skipping the private meetings with key allies that a US president typically schedules when the whole international community comes to New York. The president will spend only 24 hours in New York this time, and he spent some of it on Monday to appear on The View, giving a talk show interview intended to sell his election pitch to a big TV audience.