Mubarak names son to party leadership

CAIRO [MENL] -- President Hosni Mubarak has taken another step in his quiet effort to groom his son for leadership in Egypt.

The 71-year-old Mubarak has appointed his son Gamal, to the political committee of the ruling National Democratic Party. Gamal has risen to one of the leading business executives in Egypt and is said to have been the mastermind behind the president's economic reform drive.

The Western educated Gamal, in his mid-thirties, has been prominent in promoting sports and youth issues. To his Western interlocutors, he is known as Jimmy.

Mubarak replaced several members in the 77-member NDP committee. This included the dismissal of former Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri, blamed for Egypt's economic woes and failure to implement a privatization policy.

The president has made other changes in the party leadership. Party sources Mubarak will appoint Copts to the NDP list for parliamentary elections expected in the fall. The appointments will include Egyptian Economic Minister Yussef Boutros Ghali.

Mubarak decided to appoint the Christians in a move designed to ease tension after sectarian violence in the south last month in which at least 20 Copts were killed, party sources said. The violence in the area of Kosheh prompted international concern.

In another development, Egypt will host a conference on Arab water security on Feb. 21 in Cairo. The three-day conference will be opened by Arab League secretary-general Ismat Abdul Meguid and sponsored by the league and the Paris-based Arab-European Studies Center.

Officials said the conference would discuss water disputes between the Arabs and Israel and the Arabs and Turkey.