In his first speech in the US as Egypt's president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on developed countries to invest in renewable energy projects in the Middle East to help the region shift to a more environmentally friendly business model.

Speaking at the UN climate summit on Tuesday in New York, El-Sisi linked regional environmental and economic conditions.

"Our nations suffer from aggravated energy crises at a time when they look to achieve high rates of growth, which requires an expansion of renewable energy projects … to provide energy with the transformation to an economic model that is more environmentally friendly," he said.

"Based on that, I invite developed countries, financial institutions and the private sector to invest in these projects," he added.

On different occasions, El-Sisi has called on foreign countries to invest in Egypt, whose economy has deteriorated amid political disturbance since the 2011 uprising.

Power cuts have become common in recent years, particularly in summer months, with major outages affecting Cairo and other major cities.

El-Sisi has a busy schedule on his US visit, at the top of which is a meeting with President Barack Obama, according to National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

On Monday he met with former US secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright, according to Egypt's presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef.