EGYPT has been training British MI5 and MI6 agents in how to combat Islamic terrorists, underlining Cairo’s growing importance to the war against terror and the Middle East peace process.

A senior Middle Eastern military intelligence official revealed last week that British officers had undergone the training as part of a co-operation programme with Egypt that began after the September 11 attacks on America in 2001 and continued until last year.

Details have not been revealed, but it is believed to have included instruction in specialised interrogation techniques and in the terminology used by terrorists, which will enable agents to understand monitored telephone conversations.

“We are fully co-operating with British intelligence in the war against global terrorism,” said one Egyptian source. “We’ve succeeded in explaining to the British services the difference between moderate and extremist Muslims.”

The Egyptian intelligence services are considered among the best informed about Islamist terror groups, not least because of the country’s long battle against fundamentalists.

It was Muslim fundamentalists who assassinated Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat in

1981. Then, during the 1990s, Egypt faced a wave of Islamist terrorism on the streets of Cairo, prompting the security services to put the fundamentalist threat at the top of their agenda, well before the September 11 attacks. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, is an Egyptian.

Egypt continues to faces its own threat. Earlier this month Mohammed Eid Dabous, 31, allegedly recruited by the Iranians while studying theology in Iran, was arrested on suspicion of planning a terror campaign in Egypt. Dabous, who will go on trial at Egypt’s Supreme State Security Court this week, was allegedly paid £30,000 and promised another £600,000 for supervising terror attacks.

Mahmoud Reda Hussain, a former Cairo-based Iranian diplomat allegedly involved in the plot, will be tried in absentia. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman has dismissed the Egyptian accusations as “baseless lies”.

The help given by Egypt to Britain has underlined the importance of President Hosni Mubarak as an ally in the war against terror.

After the refusal last week by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, to take part in the Middle East conference Tony Blair is organising in London in March, Egyptian support is vital — especially in easing Israel’s proposed withdrawal from Gaza. “Without Egypt, the chances of Sharon succeeding in his plan to disengage from Gaza are very slim,” said an Israeli security source.

The role of co-ordinating between the Egyptians, the Palestinians and the Israelis has been taken by Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, who met Israeli and Palestinian officials last week on a visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Suleiman, a respected general tipped as a frontrunner to succeed Mubarak, is trusted by both the warring parties.

However, he faces a serious challenge in convincing the Palestinians in Gaza to give up attacks on Israel after the withdrawal.

Cairo has agreed to deploy about 750 soldiers along its border with the Gaza Strip to prevent militant Palestinian groups smuggling arms into Gaza. “If Egypt undertakes to prevent arms smuggling to Gaza, it will allow Israel to withdraw from the southern border of the Gaza Strip with Egypt,” said an Israeli source.

The Egyptian leader also appears to have succeeded in persuading some of the country’s commentators to be more critical of radical Muslims.

There are signs, too, that Mubarak’s stance could bring financial benefits. Egypt is already one of the largest beneficiaries of American aid and, under a trade agreement signed earlier this month, it will be able to export goods from eight new “qualified industrial zones” duty-free to America. The result should be tens of thousands of new jobs in a country of 76m people that suffers chronic unemployment.

Egypt has all the incentives to show the Arab world how to fight terrorism and that persistent support for peace pays.

“We believe in Sharon’s disengagement plan (for Gaza), and are sure that it will lead to a similar withdrawal from the West Bank,” said one Egyptian official. “Maybe not as soon as some people believe, but it will come sooner rather than later.”

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