Obama promised during the presidential campaign to give a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during the first few months of his administration.
During the eight-year administration of former President George W. Bush, U.S. relations with many Arab and Muslim nations were damaged by the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and Bush's initial reluctance to push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Obama promised during the presidential campaign to give a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during the first few months of his administration.
He called for peace and dialogue with Islam in a speech to Turkey's parliament on his first presidential visit to the Muslim world in early April. But the White House said at the time Obama would still give his promised speech to the Muslim world later.
Asked if Egypt was a bad location for such an important speech given its poor human rights record, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters: "It is a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world.
"The scope of the speech, the desire for the president to speak (to the Muslim world), is bigger than where the speech was going to be given or who's the leadership of the country where the speech is going to be given," he said.
Shortly after his inauguration on January 20, Obama chose an Arab station, Al Arabiya, to give his first formal TV interview, widely interpreted as a signal that he wanted to improve relations with the Arab and Muslim world.
"This is a continuing effort of the president to engage the Muslim world. The president has high hopes for a stronger relationship," Gibbs said.
"All of this gives the president the opportunity hopefully to extend the hand to those that in many ways are like us but simply have a different religion."
Gibbs said that during the overseas trip, Obama would also travel to the German city of Dresden and the Buchenwald concentration camp complex, which was set up by the Nazis during World War Two. Obama's great uncle liberated one of the camps at Buchenwald.
On June 6, Obama will travel to Normandy in France to attend events marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings by Allied forces
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