Potential challenger to Mubarak's office freed on bail in Cairo

CAIRO -- Egyptian authorities yesterday released on bail an opposition leader who had been detained since the end of January, and whose jailing had raised concern in Washington.

A crowd cheered the opposition leader, Ayman Nour, as he left a Cairo detention center.

Supporters had paid his bail of about $1,725, party officials said.

Nour, who leads the opposition Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, had been held for six weeks during a probe into allegations that his party had forged documents in applications for recognition last year.

The Ghad Party has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated fabrications.

The public prosecutor, Maher Abdel-Wahed, had asked that Nour and five others be freed on payment of bail, but said the investigation was continuing.

The United States has expressed ''very strong concerns" about the Nour case.

Nour, who has stated he intends to run for president, has said he does not want foreign intervention on his behalf.

''Ayman is released now, and he is the middle of quite a large crowd," Wael Nawara, an aide to Nour, said by telephone from the scene.

Nawara said Nour was hoisted taken on top of a pickup truck to a celebration that marked his release from jail.

Party officials said that Nour had refused to pay bail to secure his release, but that supporters had collected funds to pay it

Nour was transferred yesterday from a prison to the Cairo detention center. He was then released.

A judicial source said Nour, a member of parliament, could continue his activities, provided there was no final ruling against him. ''His parliamentary immunity was lifted for the investigation, but it does not affect his membership of parliament," the source said.

An associate of Nour, Ayman Barakat, left jail Friday, after more than five weeks of detention for questioning in connection with the allegations against Nour.

Nour has been an outspoken advocate of constitutional change.

He welcomed President Hosni Mubarak's proposal last month to change the constitution; it will now allow multiple-candidate elections to replace the single-candidate referendum.

Nour announced his intention to run for the presidency in the first edition of the party's newspaper, published last week.

The proposal to amend the constitution is working its way through parliament.

Other opposition parties have welcomed Mubarak's proposals, but some have expressed concern that the parliament, which is dominated by Mubarak's governing National Democratic Party, will put so many conditions on qualifications for candidates, and on the circumstances in which they may run, who can run, that the new rules would make any presidential campaign all but meaningless.