Demonstrators in Luxor staged a protest on Monday at the city council to protest the appointment of Asaad al-Khayyat as the city's new governor.

Al-Khayyat is a communications coordinator at the hardline Islamist group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya.

The protesters shut the city council's doors in the governor's face in support of outgoing governor Ezzat Saad.

The demonstrators included youths from the revolution coalition and a number of workers in the tourism field.

Deputy Head of the chamber of tourism companies said an emergency meeting grouping workers in the tourism sector will be held to take a unified stance against the newly-appointed governor.

Tourism sector workers said that appointing al-Khayyat, who belongs to the Gamaa, is the biggest possible blow. They said that his political associations will be used in the future by foreign media, especially since this hardline group was responsible for killing tourists in Luxor in 1997.

On his part, al-Khayyat said that his main aim is to revive tourism since it is a source of national income for Egypt in general and Luxor in particular.

"I am honoured to belong to the Islamic current, but now I am governor of Luxor. I am in the service of this country," al-Khayyat said in a statement.

The new governor said it was not fair to judge someone merely for belonging to a group, adding that judgement should follow the evaluation of performance and efficiency.