CAIRO Ñ Egypt has completed a major ground military exercise near the Suez Canal.

The exercise was conducted by the Egyptian Third Army, which is deployed in the northeast. The maneuvers consisted of live fire by infantry and land platforms.

The maneuvers comprised several stages, the last of which began on Wednesday. The official Egyptian news agency, MENA, said the exercise was meant to train combat skills of the infantry.

The Third Army exercise included tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and anti-tank units. The army was also provided air support in an exercise meant to simulate a ground offensive.

The army did not provide advance notice of the ground exercise. In October, amid rising military tension with neighboring Israel, Egypt scaled down a major military exercise and refrained from crossing the Suez Canal. The Third Army operates in the largely-demilitarized Sinai Peninsula.

The military provides security and has manpower for police operations in the peninsula, including a campaign to destroy illegal drugs.

The official Egyptian news agency said the exercise demonstrated what it termed was the "high field and combat skills and accuracy in hitting targets" of Egyptian infantry units.

Meanwhile, Israel has agreed to shelve opposition to the U.S. sale of the Harpoon Block II anti-ship missile to Egypt and officials said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not seek compensation for the arms deal with its eastern neighbor. Israeli officials said the military has also decided against issuing a formal request for the Tomahawk cruise missile from the United States to offset the acquisition of the Harpoon Block II. Israeli naval planners had argued that the Harpoon Block II provides initial cruise missile capability to Egypt. "Egypt has been firing Harpoon I missiles since 1989," [Res.] Capt. David Shiek, a former deputy commander of naval commandos and author of a report on Middle East naval stragegy, said. "With the Harpoon II, they will be able to fire cruise missiles. Because of U.S. weapons and platforms, Egypt in 2000 closed a technology gap of 15 years with Israel." Israel and the United States have discussed the U.S. sale of the Harpoon Block II missile as part of the strategic dialogue between Washington and Jerusalem. The two countries, scheduled, to continue their dialogue in Tel Aviv later this month, have agreed that the United States will downgrade the software of the Harpoon to ensure that it cannot be deployed against land targets. Officials said a downgrade of the Harpoon software is preferable to reducing the 500-pound missile warhead. "Our effort is to stop the land-attack capability of the Harpoon," Israeli national security adviser Uzi Dayan said. "This is possible. In the end, we want to reduce the Harpoon II to a Harpoon 1.5." Dayan said a key concern is to ensure that Egypt could not later upgrade the Harpoon without U.S. approval. He said the issue is part of the strategic dialogue with Washington. Officials said Israel has decided against asking for new weapons to compensate for the sale of the Harpoon Block II to Egypt. The navy had been pressing for acquisition of the Tomahawk cruise missile as part of plans to convert the service into a blue-water deep-strike fleet. But Israeli officials said any request for the Tomahawk would be dismissed by the Bush administration. They cited depleted U.S. stocks of the cruise missile as well as opposition from the arms control community in the State Department. "The Tomahawk will spark an arms race and raise proliferation issues," Dayan said. Israeli officials said pro-Israeli lobbyists and American Jewish leaders have been informed of the decision not to fight the Harpoon Block II missile sale in Congress. They said the Sharon government does not want to damage relations with what officials term is the most friendly administration in the history of Israel. Mortimer Zuckerman, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, indicated that Washington could eventually provide new weapons systems to Israel after the Harpoon deal is completed. He did not disclose what weapons would be offered. "There are ways to ensure that whatever arms transfers are made would be limited and that compensatory support for Israel would be provide to Israel to cope with whatever weapons it faces," Zuckerman said.

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