APA- Cairo (Egypt) President Hosni Mubarak affirmed on Saturday that Egypt pays great importance to boosting ties with Nile basin countries.

Mubarak said in an important political speech before the parliament’s joint session “that we are confident in our ability to come together for a common vision based on cooperation, not competition, to serve interests of upstream countries and at the same time safeguard rights of Egypt and current uses of the water of the Nile”.

He vowed that Egypt will be firm in dealing with attacks on its nationals stressing that taking care of Egyptian citizens abroad is the responsibility of the Egyptian State

The Egyptian leader made it clear that Egypt will not accept any insult or abuse of the dignity of the Egyptian citizens saying apparently in reference to Algerian attacks on Egyptians in Sudan and Algeria that, “we reject violations and transgressions against the Egyptian nationals” .