Washington: The Obama administration said for the first time that it supports a role for groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned organisation, in a reformed Egyptian government.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that a reformed government "has to include a whole host of important non secular actors that give Egypt a strong chance to continue to be [a] stable and reliable partner".
Gibbs said the US government has had no contact with the Muslim Brotherhood because of questions over its commitment to the rule of law, democracy and non-violence. But the group is not listed on US terrorism lists, as the militant Hamas and Hezbollah organisations are. Monday's statement was a "pretty clear sign that the US isn't going to advocate a narrow form of pluralism, but a broad one", said Robert Malley, a Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration. US officials have previously pressed for broader participation in Egypt's government.
Gibbs' remarks came after a White House meeting at which administration officials briefed outside Middle East experts, leaving some of the participants with the impression that the administration was not counting on the 82-year-old Hosni Mubarak remaining in power.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest and best-organised Egyptian opposition group, with an estimated 600,000 members, many of them educated, middle-class men.
It has formally disavowed terrorism and violence, but its inclusion in any government would probably be deeply controversial among US allies and especially in Israel, because the group advocates tearing up Egypt's peace treaty with the Jewish state. Its members run for elective office as independents. It won 20 per cent of the seats in parliament in 2005.
