Cairo - Egypt arrested 38 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood days before elections for four vacant parliament seats, security sources said Wednesday.

The men were arrested this week while they were campaigning for a candidate of the Islamist opposition movement in Khafr al-Sheikh in northern Egypt, the sources said.

Elections are due to be held on Sunday for four vacant parliament seats in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and Khafr el-Sheikh.

Candidates of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, are running in the election as independents.

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the group won a fifth of the seats. (dpa)