Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has distanced himself from remarks made by one of his senior aides, who dubbed Egypt's government a "shocking dictatorship" and said there was no dialogue between the countries.

Barak said the comments, made by Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, do not reflect Israel's position. Barak also said that Gilad's words came after he spoke at length about the importance of the peace treaty and proper relations between Israel and Egypt.

Bishop Tawadros was chosen as new Pope of Egypt's Coptic Christians Sunday when a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a chalice in a ceremony invoking divine guidance for the beleaguered minority.

Acting head of the church Bishop Pachomius took the ballot from the boy's hand and, showing it to those crowded into St. Mark's Cathedral, announced: "Bishop Tawadros."

Gunmen killed three Egyptian policemen and seriously wounded a fourth on Saturday in El-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, state television said.

"Armed men who might belong to a jihadist group attacked a police vehicle and fired on its passengers before fleeing," a security source said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak disavowed on Saturday comments by a top aide who said he doubted there would be any dialogue between Israeli leaders and Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

"The comments by (policy department chief) Amos Gilad do not reflect the policy of the defense ministry," Barak said in a statement quoted by public radio.

Several hundred Salafist Muslims demonstrated in the capital on Friday to demand a stronger reference to Islamic law or sharia in Egypt's new constitution, a contentious issue of rising political tension.

The size of the protest in Tahrir Square -- up to 500 people -- was limited because the main Salafist groups decided to postpone their demonstration on the issue to a later date, Agence France Presse reported.

A top aide to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday he is apprehensive about the Islamic movement that brought Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to power and sees no dialogue forthcoming between Morsi and Israeli leaders.

"If I am apprehensive about anything, it's the Muslim Brotherhood because the Muslim Brotherhood is an ideological movement and they are undergoing a revival," Amos Gilad, the head of the defense ministry policy department said in remarks broadcast by Israeli public radio.

A senior member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood faces prosecution after a television presenter filed a complaint that accused him of defaming her, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The source said the prosecution service has decided to refer Essam al-Erian, vice president of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, to a criminal court.

Egypt's Coptic Christians voted on Monday for a new leader to succeed Pope Shenuda III, who died in March leaving behind a community anxious about its status under an Islamist-led government.

Nearly 2,500 eligible voters made up of Coptic public officials, MPs, journalists, local councillors were casting their ballots in Cairo's St Mark's Cathedral, seat of the Coptic papacy, to choose from among the five candidates.

Israel has turned back dozens of African asylum-seekers, mostly Eritreans, trying enter the country from Egypt, Human Rights Watch and two other NGOs said on Sunday.

"Since June, Israeli forces patrolling Israel's newly constructed ... border fence with Egypt's Sinai region have denied entry to dozens of Africans, mostly Eritreans," HRW and Israeli NGOs the Hotline for Migrant Workers and Physicians for Human Rights said in a joint statement.

Five Egyptian Coptic Christians were injured Sunday in clashes with Muslims at a church in a village south of Cairo, security sources said.

The violence took place as Muslim villagers attempted to block access to the church as the Coptic faithful arrived from throughout the area to attend Sunday mass.