CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on Tuesday asked parliament to extend the state of emergency in place for three decades by a further two years despite sharp criticism by rights groups and opponents.

The extension comes ahead of parliamentary elections due later this year and presidential elections set for 2011.
“The government as it requests an extension of the state of emergency for a duration of two years, commits itself ... not to use the extraordinary measures made available under the emergency law except to confront the threat of terrorism and narcotics,” Nazif told the People's Assembly.
The law has come under repeated fire from international human rights groups, who say that thousands of prisoners have been detained without charge, many for more than a decade.
“It's just a new look for the old emergency law,” said George Ishak, a senior member of the National Assembly for Change led by Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Egypt's most high profile dissident.
The law “will still be used against the opposition because authorities can accuse any of them of terrorism,” he told AFP.
The emergency law, in place for nearly 30 years, gives police broad powers of arrest and allows indefinite detention without charge. Democracy advocates and human rights groups have long said the law is used to silence critics, pointing to the arrest of bloggers, political activists and others.
Nazif said that this time however, the restrictions to the law's application would be made explicit in the resolution before parliament.
According to a government press release, the law will no longer allow authorities to monitor all forms of communication, monitor or censor media, confiscate property or evacuate and isolate certain areas.
Under the resolution the government will be legally limited to using extraordinary powers for “the arrest and detention of persons suspected of being involved in crimes of terrorism and narcotics trafficking,” the statement said.
MPs were to vote on the resolution later on Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch and opposition members slammed an extension to the law and said new restrictions on the application were merely cosmetic.
“The government has stated repeatedly that it would limit the emergency law's use to narcotics and terrorism. This isn't a new position,” HRW's Heba Morayef in Cairo told AFP.
“The government's track record gives little reason for optimism for a shift in attitude,” she said.
The move to extend the law is widely expected to go through considering it needs a simple majority to pass and parliament is dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
The state of emergency was imposed in 1981 after the assassination by militants of president Anwar Sadat and has been repeatedly renewed since then.
The controversial law is set to expire on May 31. Parliament would be voting to extend the state of emergency from June 1 to May 31, 2012, cabinet minister Mufid Shehab told reporters earlier.
Egypt's authorities have used the state of emergency to clamp down on political opponents, including the country's largest opposition movement, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, whose members sit in parliament as independents.
Protesters, among them parliamentarians affiliated with the Islamist group and members of secular opposition movements, gathered outside parliament to call for an end to the emergency.
Some held posters depicting a skeleton to symbolize the Egyptian people with a noose -- the emergency law -- around its neck.
Others held signs reading: “Mubarak says we are a stable country but the NDP says we are in a state of emergency.”
The government has since 2005 been saying it would replace the emergency law with new anti-terror legislation.
“We have not yet reached a satisfactory text that meets the balance between security and human rights,” Shehab said.
Last month, Egyptian police beat up demonstrators demanding an end to the emergency law and dozens were arrested.
Photo: Former nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei is challenging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for the presidential elections 2011.