Rift in Brotherhood

Young members within Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood yesterday postponed an online reform debate, exposing a rift with elders determined to avoid open confrontation with the state.

The youths planned to hold the discussion of tactics for the 2010 elections online to avoid gathering in person as authorities regularly arrest members of the banned organisation, the only Egyptian opposition group able to muster hundreds of thousands of disciplined backers.

President Hosni Mubarak's Government has made it nearly impossible for the group to put up a candidate to succeed him.

The Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in Parliament in 2005 with members standing as independents.