Oprah Winfrey host show in Cairos

Cairo: U.S. television talk show star Oprah Winfrey is the host of the show from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolution that overthrew the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a statement on Friday.

New Egypt, Tourism Minister Munir Fakhry Abdelnur was quoted by state-run newspaper Al Ahram, said Winfrey has accepted the invitation "without hesitation".

"It is planned that it broadcast live from Tahrir Square on Friday in March, but no date has been completed," the mass-circulation newspaper.

This was part of a campaign to revive tourism in Egypt after the great rebellion, forced Mubarak to resign Feb. 11 after 30 years in power, the newspaper said.

"The best-known television presenter in the world it is accepted without hesitation," Abdelnur, as saying.

There was no immediate confirmation from Winfrey, who in January launched its own cable network, broadcast in 145 countries around the world.

In December, Winfrey made her first tapings outside North America, recording series of episodes in Australia, culminating in the final at Sydney specially renamed "Oprah Home."

She said the visit to Cairo will be quite different, focusing on the central area of Cairo, where democratic activists gathered over two weeks in the uprising that sent shockwaves around the world.

Uprising against the rule of Mubarak, has a central role played by social networks including Facebook and Twitter, to mobilize the crowds take to the streets.

President Barack Obama welcomed the overthrow of the strong as a defining moment in world history, and added that Tahrir Square itself was deeply symbolic. - (AFP)