CAIRO, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohammed Nassr Eddin Allam said on Monday his country is not going to sign any agreement that violates its rights to the River Nile water, state-run MENA news agency reported.

Addressing the Egyptian Parliament, Allam said Cairo will not sign the Cooperative Framework Agreement of the Nile Basin Countries unless there is a clear article that guarantees its current "water rights and usage."

The Egyptian minister added that the draft agreement in its current form without reaching a compromise over the main points of disagreement does not serve the interests of his country.

If the upstream countries signed the agreement unilaterally, " it (the agreement) will not be binding to Egypt and will not have a legal impact to its right in water," the Egyptian minister said, warning that Cairo preserves its right to taking whatever measures that protect its interest.

However, the minister did not mention what kind of measures that his country intends to adopt in case upstream countries insisted on their stance.

Egypt insists that any future agreement should leave its share of Nile water intact based on a treaty it reached with Sudan in 1959 by which 55.5 billion cubic meters of water are allocated to Egypt per year.

Cairo also insists that any possible deal must include an " early notification" mechanism to provide all the ten Nile Basin countries with enough time to study the effects of any proposed project on the river and that decision making on any given project be based on majority voting.

The Nile Basin water resources ministers failed on April 13 to reach a consensus over a cooperative framework on the allocation of Nile water resources among 10 basin countries.

Upstream countries asserted that they will press ahead with the Cooperative Framework Agreement on the Nile Basin Initiative on May 14, regardless of the differences among member countries.