SHARM EL-SHEIKH, May 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Opening the World Economic Forum (WEF) in this Red Sea resort on Saturday, May 20, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak argued that rushing reforms in the region could lead to "chaos" while his premier bluntly said the government would not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to form parliamentary blocs in the future.

"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions," Mubarak told the prestigious economic gathering, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He listed the "stalemate in the peace process, the situation in Iraq, the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program, the situation in Darfur and the tension between Syria and Lebanon" as pressing issues that must be addressed first to stabilize the region.

Mubarak called for the "pursuit of reform that emanated from within the region, reform based on a gradual prudent approach that ensures its sustainability."

The Egyptian leader, in office since 1981, argued that the hastening of the process could lead to "chaos and the demise of the process itself."

Reform in the Middle East is one of the main themes of the forum as host Egypt continues to draw fire for its repressive treatment of pro-democracy protestors and crackdown on political opponents.

The annual forum is being held this year in Sharm el-Sheikh under watertight security, only a month after the Sinai peninsula was hit by a spate of bombings, which killed 20 people, including foreign tourists, and wounded around 90.

Dozens of checkpoints were installed along the main roads of the Red Sea vacation spot, while security men lined the streets.

A total three-day ban on water sports has been imposed along the shores of the town, which is heavily frequented by European tourists, while plain-clothes policemen shooed away motorists parking in suspicious spots.

Among the highest-profile participants are US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who has been involved in intensive consultations in the region.

Other prominent guests include Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, as well as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a string of ministers from the region.

The Iranian president and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya were conspicuous by their absence.

Nazif said the government would not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to form parliamentary blocs in the future.

In a rare explicit diatribe, Egyptian Premier Ahmed Nazif said the government wants to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group with 80 seats in the legislature, from forming a parliamentary bloc in future elections.

"Islamists who say they belong to illegal organization have been able to go into parliament and act in a format that would make them seem like a political party... We need to think clearly about how to prevent this from happening," he told Reuters in an interview.

The Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in the parliament last November and December, putting the ruling party on the defensive.

Its members stood as independents in the election because the government does not recognize the Brotherhood and has refused to let the group form a political party, on the grounds that it would be based on religion.

Nazif said the government could not take way the right of individual citizens from running for parliament but members of the Brotherhood were different.

"We have a secret organization represented in parliament. They are not individuals," he said.

In recent weeks Egyptian police have taken a much tougher approach to pro-reform protests.

Plainclothes security men have beaten, kicked and clubbed people demonstrating peacefully in support of judges demanding independence from the executive and who blew the whistle on parliamentary election fraud.

Nazif dismissed multiple eyewitness accounts of attacks on protesters and said only "thugs" would take to the streets.

"Why blame the police? I am frankly fed up by the fact that people are blaming those who are trying to keep the peace against the people who are trying to break the peace."

Khadiga sat between Gamal and Abul Gheit in the front row.

The most eye-catching aspect of the WEF opening was the seating of the fiancée of Mubarak's son Gamal, who made her first appearance at a big public event, Reuters reported.

Khadiga el-Gammal sat between Gamal and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in the front row.

Key government ministers, including Investments Minister Mahmoud Mohei El-Dine, sat in the second and third rows.

Khadiga, who is about 20 years younger than her 42-year-old fiancé, had evaded public attention since her March engagement and Egyptian papers have published only one photograph of her.

But after Mubarak's opening address, she chatted casually with press photographers.

If Gamal succeeds his father as the political opposition and analysts expect, she would become Egypt's first lady -- a prominent role under both Mubarak and his predecessor late President Anwar Sadat.

Gamal, the head of the ruling National Democratic Party's Policies Department, met briefly last week with US President George. W. Bush while at the White House for meetings with top officials.

He met with Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley as well as Vice President Dick Cheney.