Cairo  - Investigations have not revealed whether the fire that broke out in the Egyptian Parliament building was due to an electrical spark, Egyptian prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud said Wednesday.

Mahmoud said that investigation will continue and a committee will assess the damage to the 19th century building.

On Tuesday, the building housing Egypt's Shura Council (the upper house of parliament) caught fire, leaving one fireman dead and 13 people injured, according to security sources. The injured suffered smoke inhalation, bruises and bone fractures.

The fire spread from the third floor of the building down to the second floor, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Wind and the wood from the ceiling helped fuel the flames.

Both houses of parliament were on summer recess so few people were in the building at the time of the fire.

Emergency services officials feared the old three-storey building in downtown Cairo would collapse after the disintegration of the building's internal walls and the total destruction of its third- floor ceiling.

However, Shura council speaker Safwat al-Sharif said that the committee which was assessing the building said the internal walls are fine and that the main hall can be restored.

"The decorated ceiling of the main hall is damaged, but will be restored soon," al-Sharif was quoted by the official MENA news agency as saying.

Al-Sharif said he is optimistic about the restoration as it will allow the next round of parliament sessions to start as scheduled in mid-November.

Earlier on Wednesday, the ministry of interior ruled out sabotage or any criminal act. The statement suggested the fire was due to maintenance work that was taking place since last July.

On Wednesday morning, an independent Egyptian daily newspaper said that a state-owned printing press had refused to print its latest edition because of headlines about the fire.

Yasser al-Zayat, managing editor of the leftist al-Badeel said that al-Ahram press "objected to the headlines of the second edition of the paper which dealt with the fire."

Sample headlines from the unprinted edition said the fire had destroyed files on recent controversial cases, such as the deaths of hundreds of people when the al-Salam ferry sank in 2006.

The owner, Mamdouh Ismail, a former member of parliament, last month was found not guilty of responsibility for the accident.

Another headline said files destroyed were concerned with the alleged supplying of substandard blood bags to hospitals by a company also owned by a member of parliament.

Al-Zayat told dpa that al-Badeel was submitted on time, while the printing press says the publication missed the deadline. Many independent and opposition newspapers depend on al-Ahram's printing presses.

Although media reports said that some documents and archives were burnt in the fire, parliament speaker Fathi Surur said that those burnt were only copies and that the originals are safe.

The Shura Council is made up of 264 members, of whom 176 are directly elected and 88 are appointed by the president. Half of the council's members are renewed every three years. Its role is mainly consultative. (dpa)