Saad al-Katatni, speaker of the short-lived democratic parliament dissolved by the ruling military council last week,
told Reuters that the opponents of army rule in Egypt had no weapons and only "legal and popular" means at their disposal and that Egypt would not plunge into a civil war.

"What happened in Algeria cannot be repeated in Egypt," said Katatni, rejecting comparisons with the conflict that erupted 20 years ago when a military-backed government blocked another Islamist group's ascent to power through the ballot box.

Some 150,000 or more Algerians were killed during the 1990s.

"The Egyptian people are different and not armed," Katatni, a 61-year-old microbiologist, said in his first interview since
the Islamist-dominated legislature was dissolved after a court ruled procedures in its election were unconstitutional.