The defence ministers of Russia and Egypt are locked in discussion on military collaboration between their countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday during a landmark visit to Cairo.

Lavrov and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu are leading a high level Russian delegation on a visit that comes in the wake of a diplomatic spat between Egypt and the United States.

Shoigu and "his counterpart (General Abdel Fattah al-) Sisi talked on military collaboration" between the two nations, Lavrov said at a press conference in Cairo, without elaborating.

Sisi, who is both defence minister and army chief, led a military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, after which he installed an interim government and promised new elections.

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said last week the talks would touch on "military and technical cooperation" -- a Russian euphemism for arms sales -- as well as political and economic ties.

Lukashevich touted the talks as the first at such a high level "in the history of our friendly relations".

Lavrov, at Thursday's joint press conference with Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy, said talks between the two sides had also touched on boosting economic and trade ties.

Fahmy for his part said that "bilateral ties between Russia and Egypt are old, in particular in military areas, and this was discussed by the Russian defence minister with his Egyptian counterpart yesterday".

Lavrov declined to be drawn into commenting on political developments in Egypt, where the army-installed government has launched a massive crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement and put most of its leaders, including Morsi himself, on trial.

"Russia is against any foreign intervention in internal affairs and we respect Egypt's sovereignty and the rights of Egyptian people to determine their future," he said.

Egypt had close ties with Russia until several years before president Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979, bringing in roughly $1.3 billion in yearly US military aid over the subsequent decades.

Diplomatic ties between Egypt and the United States soured after Washington suspended some of its military aid to Cairo after Morsi's ouster.

Since then Egypt has taken a more "independent" tack and broadened its foreign policy, Fahmy told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to rekindle warmer relations between the two countries during a visit to Cairo this month -- his first to the country since the ouster of Morsi.

"We are committed to work with and we will continue our cooperation with the interim government," Kerry said in Cairo, stressing that ensuring stability was the key to revitalising Egypt's economic growth.

Kerry's visit "left better sentiments here in Egypt", Fahmy said,

But "it does not mean everything has been resolved. It does not mean there won't be hiccups in the relationship in the future".

In October in a move that angered Cairo, Washington said it was "recalibrating" its aid to Egypt -- including about $1.3 billion for military assistance -- and suspending the delivery of big-ticket items like Apache helicopters, F-16 aircraft, M1A1 Abrams tank parts and Harpoon missiles.

Top Washington officials including President Barack Obama had repeatedly urged Egypt's new military-installed authorities to rein in the bloodshed that erupted across the country and mainly in Cairo after Morsi's ouster.

More than 1,000 people have been killed across Egypt in clashes between pro-Morsi supporters and security forces who have launched a widespread crackdown on Islamists backing Morsi.

Thousands have been arrested, mostly Islamists, including the top leadership of Muslim Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs.