Cairo: A series of articles, written by celebrated Egyptian journalist Hassanein Heikel in the form of open letters to President Hosni Mubarak, have drawn fire from the state-owned media.

Heikel, known as a confidant of late Egyptian President Jamal Abdul Nasser, originally wrote the articles in October 1982, one year after the incumbent President Hosni Mubarak took power after his predecessor Anwar Ak Sadat was assassinated.

"I originally wrote these articles to be published in the Egyptian weekly Al Mussawar Magazine," wrote Heikel, 84, in an introduction to the articles, published over the past three weeks in the independent newspaper Al Mesri Al Youm.

"But I asked Makram Mohammad Ahmad, the then editor of the magazine, to seek permission from the presidency before taking the risk of running them in his magazine."

Hekeil recalled that Osama Al Baza, the then political advisor to Mubarak, asked him to delay the publication of the articles "inside and outside Egypt." Complying, Heikel has recently said he decided to "release" the articles "because documents are usually made public 25 years after their writing."

In the six articles, Heikel, widely seen as the Arab world's most famed journalist, harshly criticises Sadat, who had put him in jail along with scores of opponents in September 1981 before they were released by Mubarak. Sadat sacked Heikel in 1974 from his post as the editor of Al Ahram, Egypt's daily flagship, after the latter criticised his policy in the wake of the 1973 war against Israel.

Later, Heikel was unsparing in his criticism of Sadat's ground-breaking visit to Jerusalem in 1977, a trip which paved the way for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel two years later.

"What has apparently irked supporters of Mubarak, who has been in power for 26 years, about Heikel's "letters" was his "fears" that the power transfer to Mubarak may be the last smooth handover in Egypt, the Arab world's most populated country of 76 million, analysts and columnist in Cairo said.

"Heikel's judgment of things has stopped at 1970 [when President Nasser died]," wrote Mohammad Ali Ebrahim, the editor of the semi-official Al Gomhuria in a series of comments on Heikel's articles.

"He [Heikel] predicted that the [Mubarak] ruling system would not be able to stand on its feet. But he needs to look quietly around to know that in Egypt there is a ruling system who is in the prime of life," added Ebrahim.

Citing what he termed as Egypt's vigorous and transparent economy, Ebrahim, addressing Hekeil, said: "Without this economy, your son would not have become a billionaire through trading in the Egyptian bourse."

"I think the message sent by Heikel is that the next president in Egypt will not come from the army," said Al Sayed Yassin, an advisor at the Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies.

"The Egyptian people have grown democratically enough to produce a civilian president," he told Gulf News.

Yassin believes that Islamists, liberals and leftists would fiercely vie for the top post.

Rumour has it that Mubarak, who has never appointed a deputy, is grooming his son Jamal to succeed him. Mubarak has repeatedly denied the claim.