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Posted on 11/28/2001 5:29:39 AM PST by veronica

President Hosni Mubarak vehemently denied North Korea is providing Egypt with long-range missiles, suggesting Wednesday that Israel might be behind the reports in an attempt to undermine U.S.-Egyptian relations.

"This is totally false and incorrect," Mubarak told Egypt's Middle East News Agency. "I have repeatedly said that we are not endeavoring to obtain these kinds of weapons and we do not plan to do so because we do not have aggressive intentions."

Earlier, a U.S. congressional source told The Associated Press in Washington that Congress will investigate reports North Korea is providing Egypt with long-range missiles. But the Egyptian news agency said Mubarak was reacting to reports in Israeli media.

The accusations come as the Bush administration plans to sell Egypt more than 50 surface-to-surface missiles in a dlrs 400 million arms deal.

Mubarak said the objective of such allegations was clear:" to create tension in the region and with the United States, with whom we have strong relations."

"The reports," he added, apparently were meant to cover up what Israel is perpetrating. ... We have repeatedly said that defending Israel, whether it is right or wrong, does not serve the cause of peace.

Administration officials have been asked to testify behind closed doors Friday on the reports of a North Korean missile deal. The U.S. plan to arm Egypt with 53 Harpoon Block II satellite-guided anti-ship missiles was reported by The Washington Post and confirmed on Capitol Hill.

Two senior members of Congress, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Tom Lantos, senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, have questioned the U.S. deal as a potential threat to Israeli ships. Presumably, the missiles could reach land targets, as well.

The deal was outlined in a classified memorandum to Congress in early November, said the congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. It surfaced as Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was arriving in Washington for talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell and members of Congress on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a senior State Department official plans to go to Saudi Arabia this week to confer with officials of the Arab kingdom about efforts to counter terrorism.

The New York Times, in a report from Riyadh, said Saudi Arabia was balking at American requests to freeze the bank accounts of those the United States says are linked to terrorism. The report said a U.S. delegation would be sent to Saudi Arabia to persuade its officials to cooperate.

But Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, credited the Saudis with excellent cooperation in cutting off financial assets for terrorists. The Riyadh government has instructed banks to look for and freeze accounts linked to terrorists, Boucher said Tuesday.

Earlier, two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Saudis are cooperating. One of the officials said Powell's assertion earlier in the month that the Saudis were cooperating in the U.S. campaign against terrorism was still on the mark.

"The Saudi Arabian government has done everything the United States has asked it to do in the war on terrorism," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Bush spoke by phone Tuesday with Jordan's King Abdullah, Fleischer said. He said he had no details about their conversation on the war in Afghanistan and the Mideast peace process.

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