Egypt will try again on Tuesday to set up an assembly to write a new constitution, the parliamentary speaker said on Saturday.
Discussions over the make-up of the constituent assembly have been in deadlock since April, when a court ordered the dissolution of a first, short-lived version because it was dominated by Islamists and failed to fairly properly represent Egypt's diverse society.
"We have invited the elected members of parliament to a joint meeting at 11 am on Tuesday … to elect a 100-member assembly to prepare a new constitution for the state," Parliamentary Speaker Saad al-Katatny said.
"All the political parties and powers have agreed that a full balance and representation of all powers and interests will be taken into consideration while forming the assembly," he added.
Katatny heads the parliamentary committee in charge of choosing the assembly's members. Before become speaker he was secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, the party with the largest presence in a Parliament dominated by Islamists.
Katatny asked public institutions, courts, syndicates and religious bodies on Friday for their nominations for the new assembly.
The new constitution is expected to define the president's powers and citizens' rights. The delay in picking the panel has left Egypt in a constitutional vacuum, while the final stage of the presidential election is set for June 16-17.
The military council that took over after Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year has promised to hand over to a newly elected president by 1 July, but it is unclear what authority the new head of state will have.
On Tuesday the military council gave political parties a 48-hour deadline to agree on the make-up of the new constituent assembly.
Parties indicated during a meeting with the military council on Thursday that the assembly would be made up of 39 members of political parties and 61 public figures, including union members, lawyers, judges and religious leaders.
