The Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed El Tayyeb received on Sunday French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his accompanying delegation currently visiting Egypt.

Emerging from the meeting, the Grand Imam said that Al Azhar appreciates France's support for Egypt especially the continued support for the Armed Forces to combat terrorism which he said "spread as cancer" calling for cooperation between the two countries to fight terrorism.

He praised scientific and cultural relations with France, pointing out that senior ulema of Al Azhar graduated from French universities.

He said that Al Azhar is ready to train Muslim preachers from European Union countries especially France to fight extremism.

For his part, the French minister hailed Egyptian-French relations as historic pointing out that Egypt considers Egypt as an important element in the region.

The French minister said that he will convey the idea of training French preachers at Al Azhar to the French President who will attend the inauguration of the New Suez Canal next month and to the French interior minister.

Le Drian began a two-day visit to Cairo on Saturday, days after France delivered the first batch of 24 Rafale warplanes Egypt had bought in a multi-billion-euro deal.

The visit comes after Egypt took delivery of three of 24 Rafale fighter jets it bought from France in a $5.6 bln deal