Egypt's Mubarak says too old for change, says report

CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has told U.S. President George W. Bush he considers himself too old to carry out political reforms, an Egyptian dissident who met Bush said in an interview published on Wednesday. President Bush told me that President Mubarak claims that age has caught up with him and he is incapable of change, so let s leave this to the next generation, sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim told the independent newspaper Al-Dustour. Ibrahim met Bush in Prague on June 5 as part of a group of dissidents from around the world. He was abroad on Wednesday and could not be contacted immediately, but his office confirmed he had given the interview to Al-Dustour. Ibrahim, who has dual US and Egyptian citizenship, was imprisoned in 2002 on charges including damaging Egypt s image abroad . The US government campaigned for his release. Mubarak s spokesman was not immediately available for comment. The U.S. embassy said it was studying the interview. Ibrahim said he had told Bush that Mubarak s remark was intended to persuade the United States to support the succession of Mubarak s politician son Gamal, whom many Egyptians expect to seek the presidency when his father leaves office. Mubarak, 79, is serving a fifth six-year term as president and some officials have said this will be his last term. Gamal Mubarak, 43, is assistant secretary-general of the ruling party. Ibrahim said he had told Bush that economic assistance to Egypt and other authoritarian governments should be linked to progress on political reform and more freedom for individuals. He said Bush later brought up the argument that hasty steps towards democracy would bring Islamists to power in Egypt. The dissident said the Egyptian authorities used this argument to drag its feet so that no real reform takes place. During his visit to Prague, Bush irritated the Egyptian government by calling for the release of opposition politician Ayman Nour, who is serving a five-year sentence on what he says are fabricated charges of forging signatures on documents. Ibrahim said he told Bush he believed the Egyptian government would free Nour only if the United States suspended some of its aid. The U.S. House of Representatives advanced legislation on Tuesday aimed at pressing Egypt to improve its human rights record by withholding some military aid until progress is made.