Egyptian police detain more Islamists in Delta

CAIRO, May 23 (Reuters) Egyptian police have detained at least 20 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia, bringing the total held in four days to about 50, the Brotherhood and police sources said today.

Police took 25 members of the Islamist movement from their homes yesterday because of their support for two local Brotherhood candidates for elections to the upper house of parliament on June 11, the police sources said.

Brotherhood deputy leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters the group had counted 20 members detained and the sweep was part of a police campaign in advance of the Shoura Council elections.

''These are people they think might act as election agents for our candidates in Dakahlia,'' Habib said.

Since Saturday, police have detained about 30 Brotherhood members in the nearby Nile Delta province of Sharkia, about half of them in connection with the elections.

The other half, about 16 people, were on a training course on how to make and market household cleaning products, the Brotherhood said earlier this week. Habib said prosecutors are now falsely accusing them of training for making explosives.

The Brotherhood, which has 88 seats in the 454-seat lower house of parliament, is Egypt's largest opposition group. It renounced violence in the 1960s.

The government began a crackdown on the movement late last year and arranged this year constitutional changes which make it harder for the Brotherhood to take part in political life.

Habib said police had released all but one of 11 Muslim Brotherhood members detained last week in the southern province of Beni Suef while putting up Brotherhood posters.

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