Eight US NGOs barred ahead of Egyptian vote

Licences were denied to the eight, which include the election-monitoring Carter Centre, because their activities "breach the country's sovereignty," according to the Social Affairs Ministry.

The Carter Centre's Egyptian head Sanne van den Burgh said it had not yet formally been notified that its application for a licence had been denied, but would "decide on its next steps" after being contacted by the ministry.

The electoral commission has said it will allow local monitoring groups to observe the elections, but is still considering whether to extend the right to international groups.

The step comes a month before the first presidential elections since former despot Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.

Tensions around the election have been raised by controversial rulings from the electoral commission, which recently disqualified 10 hopefuls from running from office on technical grounds.

Three men formerly considered to be frontrunners are on the list of 10 including Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat el-Shater, Islamist conservative Hazem Salah Abu Ismail and former Mubarak-era spy chief Omar Suleiman.

In addition, the ruling military junta approved a law on Monday passed by parliament to ban all Mubarak-era officials from running.

The electoral commission will now rule on whether this applies to those who filed their candidacies before the law was approved, such as Mr Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com