CAIRO - Opposition groups of all political stripes gathered Wednesday to launch a new coalition calling for reforms and an end to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981.
"The Egyptian Campaign against Presidential Succession" is organised by Ayman Nur, a challenger to Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections.
It groups members of the Kefaya movement, which broke political ground in 2005 by organising anti-regime demonstrations, and the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and most organised opposition movement.
It includes other political movements, rights groups, academics and intellectuals and aims to block Mubarak's son, Gamal, widely seen as the heir apparent, from taking over as president.
"This is not a personal battle against Gamal Mubarak, but a battle against this political system," said Hassan Nafaa, professor of political science at Cairo University, who was invited by Nur to head the movement.
"There is no hope for real development, or just distribution of wealth, if the Egyptian people cannot choose their own democratic regime," he told those attending the launch.
"We want everyone to feel that they have justice, that they have a voice," said former MP Mohammed Anwar al-Sadat, son of late president Anwar al-Sadat, who attended the launch.
Nur, a lawyer, set up the Al-Ghad party in 2004 and mounted an unprecedented challenge against Mubarak during the 2005 presidential election before being jailed on forgery charges many saw as trumped up.
He was released in February this year on health grounds after spending three years in jail.
He came a distant second to Mubarak in the country's first multi-candidate elections, amid violence and allegations of fraud.
The next presidential elections will be held in 2011.
Egyptians protest at Algeria's Cairo embassy