Deal ends Israel border sit-in by Egypt Bedouin

"They have ended their sit-in," North Sinai governor Ahmed Abdel Hamid told reporters in the provincial capital of El Arish.

"The Bedouin have taken down the tents that they had erected at the border and started to leave the site."

Simmering tensions between Egyptian security forces and the Sinai peninsula's Bedouin population escalated last week after two men were shot by police at a checkpoint. One officer was wounded in four days of ensuing clashes.

Bedouin fearing reprisals had converged on the Kerem Shalom crossing point -- which lies where the borders of Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip meet -- and tried to clamber over barbed wire to seek refuge in the Jewish state.

Bedouin have long complained of discriminatory policies and mistreatment by the authorities.

A spate of bombings hit popular Sinai holiday resorts in October 2004, July 2005 and April 2006, killing more than 100 Egyptians and foreign tourists.

Egyptian security forces responded with massive sweeps of the peninsula and arrested thousands of suspects among the Bedouin population. Many of them have yet to be released.

Abdel Hamid promised in a meeting with tribal leaders to tackle their grievances and review the cases of Bedouin still detained after the Sinai bombings.

He also undertook to release the brother of one of the two men killed in the checkpoint shooting.

It was the second attempt to broker an end to the protests. On Saturday, the Bedouin agreed with the government to a three-day truce and retreated to 150 metres (yards) away from the border. But they threatened to return if their demands for better jobs and welfare were not met.

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