By William Wallis in Cairo and Roula Khalaf in London
The sudden revival of Egypt's plans to develop nuclear power have led to speculation that President Hosni Mubarak may have more than just future energy supplies in mind.
Both Mr Mubarak and his 42-year-old son Gamal argued in speeches at the ruling National Democratic party's annual conference last week that nuclear power could help Egypt manage its energy resources more efficiently.
But experts and analysts point to the timing of the announcements - coinciding with western concerns that Iran's nuclear programme may prompt an arms race in the Middle East - as a sign of their potentially broader regional significance.
The government has moved quickly to act on Mr Mubarak's suggestion, with the higher ministerial council for energy reopening the files for the first time in 20 years on Sunday and the energy minister saying that construction - at a cost of $1.5bn (€1.18bn, £790m) - of a 1,000MW nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast could be complete by 2015.
Mark Fitzpatrick, non-proliferation expert at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the significance of Egypt's plans should not be exaggerated. But he said there did appear to be a security dimension to the project.
"The world should not be jumping up and down but it's something to be watched," said Mr Fitzpatrick. "Egypt, with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are the most likely to respond to Iran going nuclear. And plans to start building up a scientific infrastructure are a natural precautionary step."
The peaceful production of nuclear energy is allowed under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to which Egypt is a signatory. So far Cairo has no plans to develop a uranium enrichment capability, which would raise suspicion of nuclear weapons intentions, and along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt has been critical of Iran's enrichment programme. But regional powers also blame the west for turning a blind eye to Israel's undeclared arsenal.
Egypt depends mostly on oil and gas for electricity production. The government is losing billions of dollars selling fuel to Egyptians at subsidised prices.
It did not want to be left behind in development of a potentially cheaper and more sophisticated technology, said Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker, vice-chairman of the semi-official Council for Foreign Relations in Cairo and a former ambassador to the UK.
He also acknowledged that in the longer term having nuclear power could give Egypt more influence on regional proliferation issues.
"In North Korea the major regional players are there in six-party talks. In the Iranian case, which could end up in a catastrophe or positively, Arab countries have no say even though we will be the first to be affected. We are on the margin," he said. "Maybe this would be different if Egypt was an advanced country in nuclear power."
Political analysts in Cairo have also suggested that by initiating debate on such a globally sensitive issue the younger Mubarak was playing to public opinion and positioning himself to succeed his ageing father.
