Egyptian opposition activists on Monday protested the government's reported construction of an underground wall along the country's border with the Gaza Strip, DPA reported.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Lawyers' Syndicate in central Cairo, carrying posters of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser and placards accusing Israel and the United States of being behind the construction of the barrier.

Others held signs accusing Egypt of isolating the Gaza Strip for the benefit of Israel.

The protesters chanted slogans calling on Egypt to stop building the wall and calling on Arab countries to stand with the people of Gaza.

Egyptian riot police surrounded the demonstrators to prevent them from spilling into the streets, but made no move to disperse the crowd.

Since the Israeli newspaper Haaretz first reported last month that Egypt was building an underground barrier to curtail smuggling through tunnels under the border, Egypt has come under domestic and regional criticism for the reported plans.

The Egyptian government has never explicitly confirmed it is building a wall, but has defended measures to increase security along the border as necessary to protect the country's "national sovereignty" and "national security."

Smugglers have dismissed the measures as ineffectual, saying they will simply tunnel deeper or cut through the barriers.

The protest also followed the Israeli government's approval on Sunday night of plans to build its own barrier on its border with Egypt to prevent African migrants from crossing the border illegally in search of work.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Egyptian government had no official comment on those plans, but Foreign Ministry officials said they were preparing a statement.

Egyptian border guards regularly stop and arrest parties of African migrants trying to sneak across the barbed-wire border dividing Egypt and Israel, sometimes shooting them when they disobey orders to stop.

Israeli human rights organizations say thousands more succeed in making the journey through the desert under cover of darkness.