Israel's public security minister said on Tuesday there was no basis for Egypt's decision to charge a dual Egyptian-Canadian citizen with spying for Israel.

"I talked with people in Israel who probably may know about this issue. I would summarize it in one word - nonsense," Avi Dichter told reporters during a visit to Ottawa.

"It's a fabrication," he added. Egypt has also charged three Israelis in absentia with spying.

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Cairo says the Israelis recruited the Egyptian-Canadian in 2001 and says intelligence agents assisted him in obtaining a residency permit in Canada under a fake name and found him work in a bank.

Ottawa protested to Israel in 1997 after Mossad agents using false Canadian passports tried to kill a member of the Islamic militant Hamas movement in Jordan. Israel subsequently promised there would be no repeat of the incident.

"Those days are over ... everybody understands the rules," said Dichter.

In 1996, Egypt detained an Israeli Arab textile worker and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for spying for Israel. Egypt said he passed along messages in women's underwear using invisible ink.

The worker was released after serving eight years.