Flames lit up downtown Cairo, where massive clashes raged Sunday, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

The rioting lasted late into the night, bringing out a deployment of more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend the state television building along the Nile, where the trouble began. The military clamped a curfew on the area until 7 a.m.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appealed to Egypt's Muslims and Christians not to give in to sectarian strife after almost 20 people died in clashes on Sunday between Coptic Christians and security forces.

"What is taking place are not clashes between Muslims and Christians but attempts to provoke chaos and dissent," he said on his Facebook page.

Syrian dissidents were in Cairo on Saturday to lobby for recognition of an exile opposition council seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

The delegation planned to meet Egyptian activists and party representatives as 90 members of the Syrian National Council-led opposition met in Stockholm to strategies their struggle against Assad.

Egypt may reconsider an International Monetary Fund loan which it turned down in June, with donor countries having fallen short of meeting pledges, the finance minister was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Hazem al-Beblawi added Egypt was also negotiating financing of up to seven billion dollars from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the English-language website of state-owned daily Al-Ahram reported.

Egypt's state of emergency, which allows authorities to detain suspects without charge, will not be lifted until stability returns, its military ruler said in comments published on Tuesday.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took charge when a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, said the state of emergency would end "as soon as possible," the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Egyptian security authorities on Monday detained a man suspected of spying for Hizbullah after he escaped detention during the January uprising, the official MENA agency said.

Hassan al-Manakhly, one of the 22-member Hizbullah cell, was arrested after making an appearance on a live talk show Sunday night in Cairo, MENA said.

Ousted president Hosni Mubarak never told the army to open fire on demonstrators calling for an end to his rule, Egypt's military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said on Sunday.

"The armed forces fight for Egypt and not for just anyone, whoever it may be," he said in a speech at a ceremony south of the capital.

The trial opened in Egypt on Sunday of a Jordanian and Israeli charged with spying for the Jewish state's intelligence services and was swiftly adjourned to next week, an Agence France Presse reporter said.

The Israeli defendant was being tried in absentia.

Egypt's military rulers agreed on Saturday to amend a controversial electoral law following threats of a poll boycott by dozens of political parties and a rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square for reforms.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, agreed to amend the new law to allow political parties to field candidates in the one-third of seats that had previously been reserved for independent candidates, the official MENA agency reported.

Egypt's military chief of staff Sami Enan met party leaders on Saturday, a day after protesters converged on Cairo's central Tahrir Square to demand reforms.

The meeting came hours after scuffles and stone-throwing broke out in Tahrir Square as army troops attempted to remove protesters who wanted to stage a sit-in.