CAIRO, Dec 7: Egypt on Thursday deported 10 French and Belgian Islamists suspected of links with terrorist organisations to Belgium, airport officials said.

They said the group, eight Frenchmen and two Belgians, were escorted onto a charter plane at 1120 GMT bound for Brussels, via the southern city of Luxor. The suspects were arrested in mid-November in Cairo.They were detained in a sweep through the Medinat Nasr district of Cairo, together with another Frenchman, a US national, and a number of Egyptians, Syrians and Tunisians.

The other Frenchman in the group, Youri Sorokine, a convert to Islam and considered a ring-leader, is also expected to be deported shortly after further questioning, security sources said.

The suspected Islamists expelled on Thursday are Muslims of North African origin, with an average age of 25.

Belgian authorities said the two Belgians detained in Cairo -- aged 22 and 28 and both of Moroccan origin -- could be linked to two others arrested recently in the Saudi city of Medina.

As there was no formal expulsion order against them, the suspects had to pay for their own flight back and the French group decided to fly on a charter to Brussels for financial reasons, security sources said.

Foreign security sources in Cairo have described the group as followers of a Muslim fundamentalist Salafi ideology but posed no immediate security threat.

Egyptian security sources however have levelled serious allegations against the group, charging they had links to several terrorist organisations in the region.—AFP