Egypt parliament reconvenes, defying military

CAIRO: Egypt's dissolved parliament convened on Tuesday in defiance of the powerful military and the judiciary, amid a legal crisis triggered by a presidential decree to reinstate the assembly.

"We are gathered today to review the court rulings, the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court," which ordered the house invalid, speaker Saad al-Katatni said.

"I want to stress, we are not contradicting the ruling, but looking at a mechanism for the implementation of the ruling of the respected court. There is no other agenda today," he added.

Last month, the Supreme Constitutional Court said certain articles in the law governing the parliamentary elections were invalid, annulling the house.

The military, which ruled Egypt after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in last year's popular uprising, then dissolved the house and took legislative control using a document granting the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) sweeping powers.

But on Sunday, President Mohamed Morsi, a former member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, ordered the lower house to reconvene just a week after taking the oath as head of state.

His move highlighted the power struggle between the president and the SCAF, after the constitutional declaration issued by the military basically defanged the post of president.

Morsi's decree was hailed by those who want to see the army return to barracks, but it was slammed by those who fear an Islamist monopolisation of power as a "constitutional coup."

The crisis prompted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to call for negotiations.

"We urge that there be intensive dialogue among all of the stakeholders in order to ensure that there is clear path for them to be following," she said at a news conference in Vietnam.

The Egyptian people should "get what they protested for and what they voted for, which is a fully elected government making the decisions for the country going forward," she added.

Clinton is due in Egypt on July 14 to express American support for the process of democratic transition in the US ally.