Cairo  - Egyptian prosecutors on Sunday announced they had referred 26 men accused of plotting terrorist attacks and spying on Egypt on behalf of Hezbollah to an emergency state security court.

In a statement sent to reporters Sunday, prosecutors alleged the men plotted to attack Egyptian tourism and trade centres, that they had spied on the Suez Canal, and that they had sent agents to the Gaza Strip to help Islamic extremist group Hamas.

The men will stand trial before an exceptional court created under Egypt's Emergency Law. Its verdicts may not be appealed and only the president may order a retrial or change the verdicts.

Prosecutors said the ring was led by Sami Shehab, whom Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has admitted is a Hezbollah member.

Nasrallah said that Shehab was trying to provide aid to the Palestinians, but vehemently denied that he or Hezbollah were plotting attacks against Egypt.

The prosecution said the accused include Egyptian and Sudanese nationals, but also five Palestinians and two Lebanese men. Three suspects remain at large, prosecutors said.

Egypt's public prosecutor in April said that he had received "certain information" from Egypt's domestic intelligence service, State Security Investigations, that a Hezbollah cell had rented apartments overlooking the Suez Canal in order to spy on traffic through the canal.

He also accused them of spying on resorts in Sinai and of renting rooms in fashionable districts where Hezbollah agents held training workshops.

Two sources in the Egyptian Interior Ministry and an Islamist lawyer told the German Press Agency dpa at the time that state security had detained 49 people - including 41 Egyptians, seven Palestinians with Israeli passports, and one Lebanese man - in December on suspicion of smuggling weapons and money to Hamas.

It was not immediately clear what accounted for the differences in the numbers and nationalities. (dpa)