World Notes EGYPT

The basic facts were eerily familiar. A North African nation stood accused of obtaining equipment from a European firm in order to build a poison-gas plant. Only this time the culprit is not U.S. antagonist Libya but good friend Egypt.

The New York Times reported last week that the U.S. was concerned that Egypt was planning to build a gas factory north of Cairo with materials it bought from Zurich-based Krebs A.G.

The same day the news broke, Krebs announced it had stopped deliveries to Egypt, following an order issued by the Swiss government on March 2. Krebs also said it believed the equipment was intended only for pharmaceutical production. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied that Egypt had any plans to make poison gas. "This is the first I've heard of it," he said. "We are against chemical weapons." The U.S. now faces a potential dilemma: how to stand by its strong opposition to chemical weapons without alienating a strategic ally.