Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has attacked "complexities and obstacles" in amendments to the long-awaited church building draft law which Christians hope will boost their ability to build new churches.
After meeting with state officials this week, the Coptic Orthodox Church said in a statement that it was "surprised to find unacceptable amendments".
Without identifying the nature of the amendments, the Church described them as "impractical" and said they had been drafted "with no consideration for the citizenship or patriotism of Egyptian Copts".
Egyptian Christians have long faced problems when trying to build new churches because of extensive state regulations. Egypt currently grants common law rights to mosques but not to churches. There have been hopes that a new eight-article bill would reduce the regulation involved by setting a four month limit to process requests to build or renovate churches.
The government-drafted law is reportedly also likely to designate any building where Christian services are held as a "licensed church".
Egypt has seen a number of Muslim mob attacks on Christians in recent months amid rumours that secret churches are being set up.
Talks between the Church and the government will continue next week.
The stand-off comes after a group of Egyptian Christians took part in a rare protest in downtown Cairo last Saturday, saying that they are being treated as second class citizens in the Muslim-majority country and calling on the government to defend their rights.
Despite a draconian ban on protests in Egypt, some three dozen protesters held signs demanding rights in disputes between Muslims and Christians.
The talks over church building law and the protest this month followed a string of attacks against Christians, especially in the Minya region, home to a relatively high proportion of Coptic Christians.
Last month, police arrested 15 people after an arson attack on homes belonging to Coptic Christians in an Upper Egyptian village.
Days before that, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Minya, Anba Makarios, called on police to enforce the law protecting citizens from sectarian violence, saying that attacks are taking place at an average of one every 10 days.
On July 5, an Orthodox Christian nun from Mar Girgis Monastery in Old Cairo was killed after reportedly being hit by a stray bullet on the Cairo-Alexandria Highway.
June saw the assault on homes of Christian families in the village of Karm el Loofy, the burning of a kindergarten run by Christians in Minya, and the murder on June 30 of Rafael Moussa, a Coptic Orthodox priest of the church of St George.
In May, also in Minya, a 70-year-old Christian woman – said to be the mother of a man who was allegedly romantically involved with a Muslim woman – was stripped naked by a mob of 300 Muslims and paraded through the streets of her village.
Tensions between Christians and Muslims have intensified in the country since the Arab Spring of 2011.
The worst single incident came in February 2015, with the beheadings by Islamic State of 21 Egyptian Christian migrant workers.
Egypt has an estimated population of nine million Christians. Mostly Orthodox Copts, they account for about 10 per cent of Egypt's population, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.
