Two members of Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, were arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to a statement by the group, dpa reported.
The latest round of arrests came as the government, led by President Hosny Mubarak's National Democratic Party, was expected to announce a date for this autumn's parliamentary elections.
The Muslim Brotherhood, banned from participating in politics, announced Thursday that they would contest the elections, fielding its candidates as independents. A number of other opposition groups plan to boycott the polls.
A statement by the Muslim Brotherhood said that an engineering professor at the university of al-Mansoura was one of the two men arrested in the governorate there on Saturday.
"Security forces searched the contents of the houses in a barbaric manner, and seized some books," the statement said.
Saturday's detentions came 10 days after the arrests of nine other party members, who were charged with belonging to a politically banned organisation.
Those charged with the offence face anywhere from 15 days in prison to much longer.
In 2005 elections, the party's members, running as independents, won 88 seats, nearly a fifth of the seats in the People's Assembly, making the group the largest opposition bloc in the legislature. d