Hamas' prime minister in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniya called on Egypt on Wednesday to keep the Rafah border crossing open around the clock.

At a ceremony to inaugurate a new hall at the border crossing, Haniya urged the Egyptians "to open the door of the Rafah crossing wider by allowing it to work around the clock and increasing the number of travelers."

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court froze on Tuesday a presidential decree reinstating the Islamist-led parliament, hours after the lower house convened in defiance of the judiciary and military.

The top court's decision is expected to heighten a crisis that has raged since President Mohamed Morsi, a former member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, issued the decree Sunday just eight days after taking office.

Egypt's dissolved parliament convened on Tuesday in defiance of the powerful military and the judiciary, amid a legal crisis triggered by a presidential decree to reinstate the Islamist-led assembly.

"We are gathered today to review the court rulings, the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court," which ordered the house invalid, speaker Saad al-Katatni said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday called for talks among all those involved in a showdown between the Egyptian parliament and the military to bring an end to the crisis.

"We urge that there be intensive dialogue among all of the stake-holders in order to ensure that there is clear path for them to be following," she said in a press conference after talks in Vietnam.

Egypt's military on Monday said the constitution and the law must be upheld concerning the dissolution of parliament, raising tension after President Mohammed Morsi decided to reinstate the assembly.

The Supreme Council of the Armed forces (SCAF), which ruled Egypt until Morsi's election last month, underlined the "importance of the constitution in light of the latest developments," the official MENA news agency reported.

Egypt's top court on Monday rejected a decree by President Mohammed Morsi to reinstate the parliament it ruled invalid, setting the president on a collision course with the judiciary and the military that enforced the ruling.

"All the rulings and decisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court are final and not subject to appeal... and are binding for all state institutions," the court said in a statement.

Egyptian border guards have arrested 68 Eritreans and Ethiopians trying to sneak across the border into Israel, a security official said on Sunday.

The 47 Eritreans and 21 from Ethiopia were seized late on Saturday by an Egyptian patrol following a brief chase and warning shots after they were surprised trying to negotiate barbed wire that marks the border, he said.

Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi issued a decree on Sunday annulling the Supreme Court's dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament, the official MENA news agency reported.

"President Morsi has issued a presidential decree annulling the decision taken on June 15, 2012 to dissolve the people's assembly, and invites the chamber to convene again and to exercise its prerogatives," MENA said.

U.S. deputy secretary of state Bill Burns was in Cairo on Saturday to meet with a wide spectrum of leaders and groups including Egypt's newly elected President Mohammed Morsi, the embassy said.

Burns was on a July 6-8 visit "to meet with a broad spectrum of Egyptian leaders, politicians, and civil society representatives," it said in a statement.

Egyptian lawyers protested on Saturday outside a police station in northern Cairo a day after clashes there left a dozen people injured, a security official said.

The clashes were sparked by a confrontation between a lawyer and a policeman inside the Nasr City police station, a row that quickly escalated as more policemen and lawyers arrived at the scene.