Egypt has cancelled talks with senior European Union officials after the bloc criticised the Arab country's human rights record, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Egyptian analysts and rights activists said the government overreacted by cancelling the talks, which were due to cover a range of political issues including democracy and human rights.

But they said the squabble was unlikely to have longer-term repercussions, in part because issues such as trade ties were more important to both sides. The EU is Egypt's biggest trade partner. It accounts for nearly 43 per cent of Egyptian imports and 31 per cent of exports, including natural gas, according to the EU's website. The spat arose after a European Parliament resolution, passed on Thursday, called on Egypt "to end all forms of harassment, including judicial measures, detention of media professionals and, more generally, human rights defenders and activists".