"The People's Assembly has approved by a 308-member majority the presidential decree to extend the state of emergency for a period of two years," MENA said.

A parliamentary source told AFP that 103 MPs had voted against the extension of the controversial emergency law, which MENA said is due to take effect on June 1 and run until May 31, 2012.

The People's Assembly has 454 members. It was not immediately clear whether the remaining 43 lawmakers had not attended the session or abstained from voting.

Egypt's emergency law, in place since 1981, gives police extended powers of arrest, suspends constitutional rights and curbs non-governmental political activity. Special courts set up under the law deny a right of appeal.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moufid Shehab told reporters.

He acknowledged that in the past, the law had been applied "in a general fashion" to other types of cases. Shehab said that the extension also abolishes a few of the wide powers given to police, including the power to censure or close media and publications and to monitor communications.

The admission was unusual, since the government has long insisted that the emergency law was only used in terrorism or drug cases and denied the law was abused.

Shehab said that police would still have the same extensive powers to hold suspects without charge in terror and drug cases, though he underlined that detentions are subject to review by special courts.

In many cases, however, detainees have been held despite court orders, and rights groups said there is no accountability in arrests. Activists said Tuesday the new promises gave little guarantee of change.

"These statements are similar to those they have been giving for years, which we know are contrary to the truth," said Soha Abdelati, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "People are arrested for all sorts of reasons. We don't feel these new statements provide any safety blanket." "People have been arrested under the emergency law for a range of issues, including freedom of speech and cases of freedom of religion," Abdelati told The Associated Press.

"It's common for the Interior Ministry to abuse all its privileges under the emergency law, so as long as the law is applied, there are not enough guarantees that abuses won't take place." A number of bloggers have been detained under the emergency law, including Hany Nazeer, a Christian arrested in 2008 after posting an item seen as insulting to Islam, and Mosaad Suleiman Hassan, an activist who wrote about discrimination against Bedouin in the Sinai Peninsula, jailed since 2007.

Shehab said anyone wrongly detained can appeal against their detention and if the court finds they are not connected to a terror or drug case, they will be freed.

The emergency law was put in place after the 1981 assassination of then-President Anwar Sadat and it has been renewed constantly since.

Shehab said its extension was necessary because of continued terrorism threats against Egypt, pointing to bombings against tourist resorts in the Sinai in the 2000s and weapons smuggling across the Egypt-Gaza border.