Gunmen fired at a police station in Egypt's North Sinai on Saturday, but there were no casualties, security officials told AFP.

The gunmen, riding in two vehicles, opened fire at the Sheikh Zuwayyid police station near Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip at dawn, the officials said.

Syria has accused Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi of "signing the death warrant" of a contact group trying to solve the nearly 18-month conflict by calling for regime change, official media reported on Friday.

"Syria looks positively on any initiative seeking to contain the crisis and permit a return to normal life," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said in an interview on state television.

An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted four former senior police officials of involvement in the killings of demonstrators during the 2011 popular uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

The grounds for the decision were not immediately available following the announcement of the acquittals.

Israel's High Court was on Thursday mulling an urgent appeal on behalf of 20 Eritrean nationals stranded in no-man's land on the border with Egypt for a week after the Jewish state refused them entry.

The appeal was filed by Israeli NGO We Are Refugees in a petition against Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Interior Minister Eli Yishai for refusing to allow the group of Eritreans, who are seeking political asylum, into the country.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday told a meeting of Arab League ministers it was time for the Syrian regime to step down and added that a resolution of the crisis was an Arab responsibility.

"I tell the Syrian regime 'there is still a chance to end the bloodshed'. Now is the time for change... no time to be wasted talking about reform," Morsi told the Cairo meeting.

Egypt's former culture minister, Farouq Hosni, was on Tuesday referred to a criminal court on charges of corruption, Deputy Justice Minister for illicit gains Assem al-Gohari said.

Hosni, who served under ousted president Hosni Mubarak for more than two decades, is accused of having illegally acquired 18 million Egyptian pounds (nearly $3 million), which he is now being asked to return, state media reported.

An Egyptian security official said Monday some 20 tanks have been withdrawn from the Sinai Peninsula after a month-long deployment in an anti-terrorism military offensive.

The tank deployment earlier this month brought complaints from Israel as the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries restricts heavy weapons in the peninsula, which borders the Jewish state.

Egypt's president is too new in his post and doesn't fully understand Syrian politics, a Damascus official said Sunday, after Mohammed Morsi publicly sided with those opposed to President Bashar Assad.

"We heard the words of President Morsi. If I may say so, it was a disappointment," Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told Lebanon's NBN television.

A veiled anchorwoman read the news on Egypt's state television for the first time on Sunday, reflecting a shift in official media since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak and the subsequent rise of Islamists.

Fatma Nabil made her first appearance on the Channel 1 midday broadcast, wearing a black suit and a cream-colored scarf or hijab covering the hair and neck.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi made no mention of resuming ties with Iran during a recent visit to Tehran, his spokesman Yassir Ali said on Sunday, denying statements by Iranian officials.

"The meeting between President Mohamed Morsi and his Iranian counterpart (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad did not broach the subject of boosting the level of representation or of opening an embassy," said Ali, quoted by the state-owned daily Al-Ahram.