Laura Bush guests on Arab 'Sesame Street'

CAIRO, May 24 (UPI) -- First lady Laura Bush made her debut on Egyptian TV as English-speaking "Auntie Laura" in that country's version of "Sesame Street."

Bush spent much of Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek's wife Suzanne. visiting the pyramids, a school for girls and the television set of "Alam Simsim."

The show is funded by the U.S. government's development arm, USAid.

The BBC said the two women were videotaped with a girl puppet named Khokha doing a segment on the benefits of reading, a key theme of Laura Bush's visit with her husband to the Middle East.

The Egyptian government estimates only half of the country's women are literate.