Differences on Iraq, Sudan and human rights have started to cloud relations between the United States and Egypt, its main Arab ally and partner. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher Thursday bluntly told Washington not to interfere with his country's affairs after US press reports said President George W. Bush had decided to oppose new aid to Egypt to protest against a sentence handed down to 63-year-old Egyptian-American human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

"Egypt does not accept any pressure, of any kind, and everyone knows it," Maher told reporters in Cairo.

"We do not interfere in the course of justice, and we asked everyone to accept the decisions of our judiciary," he said.

Ibrahim, also a sociology professor, was sentenced July 29 to seven years in jail following a retrial on charges that included tarnishing Egypt's image abroad.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan later confirmed the articles in Thursday's Washington Post and Chicago Tribune from Mount Rushmore, South Dakota where Bush was giving a speech.

"As a friend and ally we will meet our Camp David commitments, but at this time we don't contemplate additional funds beyond the Camp David commitments," she said.

Maher's tough tone surprised many as it came from a country pampered by Washington for its moderating influence in the Middle East conflict since it became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Egypt receives about two billion dollars a year in US military and civilian aid, the largest to be granted to a foreign country after Israel.

The US decision will not affect existing aid programs to Egypt, but will prevent Cairo from receiving a 150 million dollar package sought to overcome losses in tourism revenue after the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had been lobbying for the package, arguing tit-for-tat after the US Congress voted recently to grant Israel 200 million dollars in anti-terrorism funds.

The Washington Post also said the Bush administration has also ordered a review of US democracy-building projects in Egypt, as resentment had been growing over Egyptian rules governing the activities and funding of human rights groups.

The US press has been regularly echoing negative comments of authoritarian and ultra-conservative policy on Mubarak from members of the US congress.

On the other hand, the Egyptian press has been attacking almost daily the US alignment on Israel, in editorials tacitly approved by the government.

And the Egyptian newspapers' tone has risen over the past few weeks against the US threats to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Last month, Mubarak warned that a US military strike on Iraq would be a "catastrophe" and heighten tensions in the Middle East, a view that all the other Arab states appear to share.

And last week, the leading daily al-Ahram said US threats against Iraq are part of a wider conspiracy against the Arab world evidenced in US support for Israel and its sponsorship of a peace deal in Sudan that Cairo views with suspicion.

Maher on Thursday reiterated his country's fear that the US brokered deal to end the 19-year-old civil war in Sudan could lead to a partition of that country, during talks here with US envoy to Sudan John Danforth.

The agreement signed by Khartoum and the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on July 20 in the Kenyan town of Machakos grants southern Sudan will be granted a six-year period of administrative self-rule.

At the end of the six years, the animists and Christians who form a majority in the south -- along with a Muslim minority -- will decide in a referendum if they wish to remain part of Sudan or secede.

Egypt has not played any part in the deal and fears the creation of a new state will increase competition for the waters of the Nile as well as make it easier for Islamists to dominate northern Sudan.

PHOTO CAPTION

Marking a shift in U.S. policy on Egypt, the Bush administration will oppose any new foreign aid to Cairo to protest the prosecution of an Egyptian-American civil rights activist, The Washington Post reported August 15, 2002.