'Elements close to Egypt govt attacked protesters'

United States has said it has evidence that elements close to the Egyptian government were responsible for the attack on protesters demanding outer of President Hosni Mubarak.

"We have traced it to elements close to the government or the ruling party. I don't know that we have a sense of how far up the chain it went," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told mediapersons at his daily news briefing.

"There are strong indications that this is part of a concerted effort. I can't tell you who is directing it. But with the increasing number of instances of people roughed up journalists' cars attacked, offices broken into, journalists detained, these do not seem to be random events," he replied to the queries on increasing attacks on foreign journalists in Egypt.

On reports that wireless-service operators were forced by the government to send mass pro-Mubarak text messages, he said, "Knowing that those messages were sent out on Wednesday gives us some strong indication that this, was an orchestrated effort by elements close to the government."

However, he clarified that there is nothing wrong in sending text messages by the government itself. He said US is concerned about the violence of which they have "strong indications" that it was an "organised effort."

"It is important to know what they're organising groups for. To the extent that part of this effort yesterday was an organized effort at intimidation that is something that we have clearly condemned," he said.

The attack on journalists, he said has been raised at the highest level in the Egyptian Government.

"I don't think that these are random events. There appears to be an effort to disrupt the ability of journalists to cover today's events. It could well be... this is in anticipation of events tomorrow, which we are bracing for a significant increase in the number of demonstrators on the streets and with that, given yesterday's events, the real prospect of a confrontation," he said.

The State Department spokesman strongly refuted the allegation by the Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman that the protest in the country was being orchestrated by foreign elements.

"We have no information to suggest that the protests on the streets are being managed or directed by foreign elements. As we said and made clear yesterday, it's vitally important for the government to reach out to representatives of Egypt's opposition and begin serious negotiations."

"That, we think, is a very clear imperative and something that needs to be done now so that the Egyptian people can see that there is a credible transition process under way. As we've stressed this process needs to begin now," Crowley added.