Egypt's former spy chief and vice president Omar Suleiman on Thursday ruled out running for the presidency in the upcoming election, ending weeks of speculation, as Khairat el-Shater, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, registered his candidacy.

Suleiman, who served as Hosni Mubarak's vice president before the strongman's overthrow last year, said in statement on Wednesday that he would sit out the election because getting the nomination was too difficult.

A rocket fired from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula exploded in the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat early on Thursday but caused no injuries or damage, a senior police official said.

Public radio said police in Eilat had been put on the highest state of alert following the blast.

The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for Egypt's presidency, Khairat el-Shater, has pledged to press for the implementation of sharia (Islamic law) if elected, a Muslim think tank said on Wednesday.

Shater, whose candidacy for the May election sent political shock waves throughout the post-uprising country, said implementing the sharia was "his first and final goal," said the Legal Authority for Rights and Reform after meeting with him on Tuesday.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday defended its decision to run its deputy leader in a presidential election amid splits in the movement and accusations that the Islamists are trying to monopolize power.

The Brotherhood backtracked on an earlier pledge not to contest May's presidential election by announcing on Saturday that it would field deputy leader Khairat El-Shater.

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church has decided to boycott an Islamist-dominated panel charged with drafting the future constitution, the official MENA news agency reported on Monday.

The official MENA news agency reported that the decision was taken unanimously by the 20 members of the Holy Synod to remove the two church officials who sit on the committee.

Washington will monitor actions by Egyptian politicians and hold them "accountable," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday, after the Muslim Brotherhood entered Egypt's presidential fray.

"We're going to watch what the political actors in Egypt do. We're going to watch their commitment to the rights and the dignity of every Egyptian," Clinton told reporters in Istanbul following a meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group.

Egyptian Islamist sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail kicked off his candidacy for the presidency on Friday with a large motorcade that headed to the electoral committee headquarters in Cairo.

Witnesses said dozens of vehicles packed with the ultra-conservative's supporters left a mosque with the statutory 30,000 endorsements from citizens required to register as a candidate.

Egyptian liberal groups said on Friday that they were back to square one in a struggle with Islamists over the drafting of a new constitution a day after most parties agreed on a compromise.

Members of a controversial panel tasked with drafting Egypt's new constitution on Wednesday elected Muslim Brotherhood member Saad al-Katatni -- currently the speaker of parliament-- to head the committee.

The appointment comes following a series of withdrawals from the constituent assembly by liberal, leftist and independent figures who accuse Islamists of monopolizing the process that will deliver the post-revolution charter.

In an attempt to award performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording "Desert Masterpiece Production” owned by Egyptian media mogul Mr. Ayman Sabek with the partnership of Lions Hermes Beirut District will be hosting on Saturday 31st March 2012, at 6:30PM, a ceremony honoring the renowned Egyptian actor Mr. Mahmoud Hemida at UNESCO Palace.

The Lebanese tenor Gabriel Abdel Nour will mark the opening of this ceremony, singing the Lebanese and Egyptian national anthems.