Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said reports on building a giant bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia were "mere rumors," the official news agency MENA reported on Sunday.

In an interview with the state-run daily al-Messa, which was carried by MENA, Mubarak said Egypt has never broached such a plan.

The Saudi side had once, during the reign of late King Fahd bin Abdel-Aziz, proposed the bridge, but the Saudis themselves changed their minds and dropped the idea, said Mubarak.

He said the idea came to the minds once again after the tragedy of the sinking of the Egyptian ferryboat Al-Salam 98.

Al-Salam 98 sank in the Red Sea on Feb. 3, 2006 as it was on route from Saudi Arabia to Safaga, some 600 km southeast of Cairo, killing 1,033 passengers and injuring about 380 others.

Mubarak said he completely rejected this idea since the bridge will split the Egyptian Red Sea tourist resort city of Sharm el- Sheikh, at the southern tip of Sinai Peninsula.

The bridge's going through the city will harm tourist sites and hotels there and will badly affect the tourism industry in the entire area, said Mubarak.

Earlier on Thursday, the Saudi newspaper Arab News claimed that Egypt and Saudi Arabia would start construction of a giant bridge over the Aqaba Gulf next week, which was 50 km long and would cost 3 billion U.S. dollars.

Arab News also said Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz will lay the cornerstone for the bridge, whose construction would take three years.

Sharm el-Sheikh is known for its spectacular Red Sea beaches and ultra-clear water, which drew tens of thousands of foreign tourists to the resort every year and brought millions of dollars of income for Egypt.

Source: Xinhua