Here's some more reporting for international consumption re the NDP conference. Seems the opposition were serious when they said they were joining together to focus on constitutional change.

More than 500 intellectuals and opposition figures from various political groups, including Nasserites, Marxists, Islamists and independents, attended the opposition gathering.

Quelle menage! The one thing that seems to get their juices going is resistance to a Mubarak dynasty.

In reference to opposition fears that Mubarak, who has been in power for 23 years, may be grooming his son to succeed him, participants at the alternative conference raised banners criticizing the move. Their message was summed up by Mohammed Said Saed, an independent with the state-owned Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. The main issue, he said, was "constitutional amendment", charging that the present constitution breeded tyrannical regimes, opened the door for the inheritance of power, and allowed leaders to stay at the helm indefinitely. "What nation would accept its president to rule for 24 years and maybe forever?" he asked. Mubarak's current term in office expires in early October 2005, and he is widely expected to seek a new six-year mandate. Under the constitution, parliament nominates a candidate for the presidency by a two thirds majority and refers its choice to the people for approval in a referendum. Nasserite MP Hamdeen Sabahi accused the ruling party of political maneuvering and avoiding any real reforms. "Egypt's rulers do not want a peaceful rotation of power," he snapped. Islamist MP Adel Eid lectured participants on the younger Mubarak's political ambitions, and leftist Abdul Ghafar Shaker said the NDP convention was little more than a "Gamal Mubarak convention".

According to the AFP article, the NDP is proposing some legislative changes on political activity and parties, but that's being treated by the opposition as an unimportant diversion.