Repairs on an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Israel and Jordan are expected to be completed by the end of the week, the state's Mena news agency reported on Sunday.

The pipeline was blown up on July 4 in the third attack of its kind this year. Security sources said the explosion happened at Bir Abd station, located some 60 km (40 miles) east of the Suez Canal in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

The agency quoted an Oil Ministry official as saying that Gasco, Egypt's gas transport company which is a subsidiary of the national gas company EGAS, was repairing the pipeline at a section which intersects with rail tracks.

"Repair works will be completed during the end of this week," Mena quoted the official as saying.

A security source said after the blast that men in a small truck who were armed with machineguns forced guards at the station to flee, then planted explosive charges.

Gasco closed it down after the explosion, the source said. Previous attacks on the pipeline on April 27 and on February 5 closed the pipeline for weeks. - Reuters