Minster of Social Solidarity Ali Moselhi said that farmers stand for half the population in Egypt adding that his ministry did not discriminate between families that were supported by either women or farmers.

He said families that do not own agricultural lands are should be given care by the state.

The Minister said that the price of bread is getting out of control particularly after this price had become about 20 fold the officially declared price.

"This problem has a direct bearing on the behaviour of bakery owners," said Moselhi at a press conference Sunday.

In spite of this, he promised that the government would continue to subsidize the bread and that bread subsidies in the state budget were about to reach LE7 billion. Moselhi said studies were underway to present direct subsidies to citizens instead of giving these subsidies to bakeries.

Meanwhile, Minster of Housing Ahmed el-Maghrabi said his ministry would speed up the upgrade of the potable water delivery system. He said the new system would be operational by the end of this year.

"About 3.8 million cubic feet of water would be added after the new system operates," said el-Maghrabi. "This is up to 25 per cent of the amount of potable water we produce now."

The Minister of Housing said the government still needed about LE17 billion to upgrade sanitation and water services.

He added that a concentration of poor people can be found in rural areas and Upper Egypt. Chairman of the Media Committee at the National Democratic Party Alieddin Helal, for his part, said that the party's belief in citizenship was the main force behind its policies.

"Our belief in citizenship drives us to provide services to the citizens regardless of religion, race or their geographic location inside Egypt," said Helal.

He said for a real change to happen inside the Egyptian society a set of policies needed to be formulated.

He underlined the importance of reconsidering the structure of agricultural cooperatives.

5/11/2007