The protesters, comprised of Sawt el-Shab [The Voice of the People], Ana Masry [I am Egyptian] groups and the Popular Resistance Movement - a group of retired military personnel - burned Qatari and Turkish flags and chanted slogans against al-Jazeera satellite channel on Saturday, Tasnim reported.

They distributed flyers calling al-Jazeera the mouthpiece of Qatar, saying that Egypt must be saved from sedition and national security must be protected against international interference.

The protesters also called for the expulsion of Qatar's ambassador and demanded the permanent closure of al-Jazeera office in Egypt.

Al-Jazeera's Mohamed Fadel Fahmy said the protesters chanted slogans supporting the Egyptian military and General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the army chief who helped depose former president Mohamed Mursi, and proclaimed: "We're not Syria, we're not Libya!".

He said the protesters pledged to continue demonstrating until their demands were met.

The protest appears to be the first permitted by the Egyptian Interior Ministry following the introduction of a controversial law restricting the right to protest, al-Jazeera's correspondent said.

The groups would have had to notify the authorities of their plans, including the slogans they would use, how long they would protest for, where they would be and the groups involved.

"The Interior Ministry would have known about it," al-Jazeera's Fahmy said.

Among other rules, the new protest law requires organizers to notify the ministry three days before holding a demonstration, while also setting prison terms and high fines for violators.

Meanwhile, two al-Jazeera journalists arrested in August during the pro-Mursi protests in August remain in prison.

HH/HH