Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi discussed the Syria crisis with President Mohammed Morsi, who has launched a four-nation initiative to end the civil war that has taken the lives of more than 60,000 people in 22 months.

It was Salehi's third visit since Morsi took office last summer. Diplomatic relations, downgraded after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, remained cold during the three-decade rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in a 2011 popular uprising.

Ties have warmed since then. Morsi visited Tehran to attend a summit of nonaligned nations a few weeks after he took office.