The charges come at a time of heightened tension between Egypt and Israel

Anwar Mohamed Tawfiq, a 52-year-old unemployed man, is accused of contacting the Israeli consulate in Alexandria with offers to provide sensitive economic and political information.

The case is to be tried in an emergency security court, under special laws put in place after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

If convicted, Mr Tawfiq could face 25 years in prison without a right to appeal.

Precedent

Police said Mr Tawfiq was arrested in Egypt about eight months ago.

He is accused of sending faxes to the Israeli consulate in Alexandria offering to provide information and falsely claiming to work for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Mr Tawfiq has been interrogated by the prosecutor of the high state security court, and will stand trial in the same court, though no trial date has been set.

The charges against Mr Tawfiq come less than a month after a court in Cairo sentenced another Egyptian national for spying for Israel.

Sherif al-Filali, a 35-year-old engineer, was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

He was initially acquitted of the same charges, but the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, threw out the ruling and ordered a retrial.

The chief judge at al-Filali's second trial, Mohammed Shalabi, ruled that the engineer "had collaborated with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad".

Al-Filali's lawyer, Ahmed Saeed Abdel Khaleq, told the French news agency AFP that he would make a last-ditch appeal to President Mubarak to annul the verdict.