"The emergency law will not be used to undermine freedoms or infringe upon rights if these two threats are not involved," said Ahmed Nazif, the Egyptian prime minister, in a speech.

Al Jazeera's Amr el-Kahky, reporting from Cairo, said that the changes to the emergency law were "significant indeed".

"The opposition, during telephone calls with me earlier, described it as half a step towards democracy," he said.

"The law has been in place continuously since 1967 apart from 18 months between 1980 and 1981, which means the country has been living under the emergency law for a very, very long time."

Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Tuesday that the proposed changes to the law would prohibit using it to censor newspapers and other publications.

Law renewed

Parliament had been expected to completely renew the law, which was scheduled to expire this year, but instead is now only to extend the terrorism and drug trafficking provisions for another two years.

The state of emergency has previously been renewed every three years since 1981.

Demonstrators had planned to hold a protest outside the Egyptian parliament on Tuesday. A number of protesters were injured after a similar rally in downtown Cairo earlier this month.

Opposition parties, including the National Association for Change of former UN atomic energy agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, have demanded an end to the emergency law in the run-up to parliamentary elections this year and a presidential vote in 2011.

The emergency law has been in place continuously since Anwar Sadat, the former Egyptian president, was assassinated in October 1981.

Changes promised

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has promised repeatedly to overturn the law.

During his 2005 re-election campaign, Mubarak said he would replace it with a new anti-terrorism law, but that bill was never passed and Mubarak used that fact to justify renewing the emergency law.

Officials from the ruling National Democratic Party promised once again this weekto pass anti-terrorism legislation. The NDP says that law, if passed, would allow for the phasing out the remaining sections of the emergency law.

The emergency law gives police and security officials broad authority to break up public demonstrations, detain people without charges or evidence, and conduct searches without judicial approval.

A special emergency security court was also established under the law. Its rulings are not subject to normal judicial review, and can only be overturned by the president.

Human rights organisations have long been critical of the legislation.

The Cairo-based Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights this week called it "the main source of human rights violations in Egypt".

Al Jazeera

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