Laura Bush In Egypt

In front of the pyramids, Laura Bush said on Monday that building democracy is a slow process, and she praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for what she called an important first step toward open elections.

"I think he's been very bold and wise to take the first step," Mrs. Bush said of the president who has served 24 years without facing an opposing candidate for re-election.

As CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports, the first lady is on a goodwill mission, trying to soften anti-American sentiment brought on by the Iraq war, and most recently prisoner abuse scandals and the flawed Newsweek story about desecration of the Koran.

"I know that our government is investigating each of them and the American people feel sick about them. It's not an image of Americans that any of us want,'' Mrs. Bush told the CBS Early Show.

A day after stepping into tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, America's first lady spoke out on another heated controversy stirring along the Mediterranean Sea.

Egyptians are deciding whether to allow the country's first multi-candidate presidential election in September, but many of Mubarak's political opponents say the plan is little more than window dressing designed to appease reformists while keeping Mubarak's ruling party in power.

Mrs. Bush told reporters that sometimes "you have to be slow" when implementing political freedoms. She noted that the United States allowed slavery long after the Constitution was adopted.

"You know that each step is a small step, that you can't be quick. It's not always wise to be," she said.

Last week, the White House said President Bush supports Mubarak's plan to hold free and competitive elections for president and urged Egypt to allow for full campaigning as well as international observers.

Mubarak hasn't formally announced he will run again but is widely expected to do so.

Mrs. Bush spoke to reporters in front of the Giza pyramids after getting a tour of a new excavation site there. Earlier in the day, she and Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, spent time together at the Ittihadiyya Palace, a school for girls and the set of the Egyptian version of "Sesame Street."

The first ladies taped a segment on reading with Khokha, a peach puppet with a mop of purple and brown hair that is the star of "Alam Simsim." The show is in Arabic but "Auntie Laura," as Khokha called Mrs. Bush, read her lines in English and nailed it in one take.

Mrs. Bush's breezy travels Monday were in contrast to her hectic stops Sunday at sites sacred to Muslims and Jews. Mrs. Bush was heckled by protesters at the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, while Israeli police and U.S. Secret Service agents had to hold back the crowds and aggressive local media who tried to rush the first lady.

"These are some of the most holy places ... emotions always run high," the first lady said Monday on CBS News' The Early Show. "These are very, very emotional places. They're sacred places to religions."

Bush said the protesters who heckled her during Sunday's visits did not surprise her and she denied that they overshadowed her goodwill visit.

"I think maybe the reports that you all have seen have been slightly exaggerated. The crowds were mainly photographers, as you might guess, and press," she Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "I never felt at all unsafe, and no one in my party felt unsafe at all."

President Bush talked with his wife by telephone Monday and she told him the trip was going well, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. McClellan dismissed the protests as "a little commotion" and said the demonstrators were few although they got a lot of coverage.

Mrs. Bush made a final stop in Israel Monday morning at the Church of the Resurrection in Abu Ghosh, a predominantly Muslim town where some believe Jesus appeared on Easter. Mrs. Bush said she was not surprised to encounter protesters over the weekend and pledged the United States will do all it can to help resolve age-old conflicts.

"This is a place of very high tension and high emotion," she said. "And you can understand why when you see that people with a deep and sincere faith in their religion are living side by side.