CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt detained and deported Northern Irish Nobel Laureate and peace activist Mairead Maguire on Wednesday after she tried to enter the country, she and airport officials said.

"We were taken to the detention centre and questioned and held for eight hours, and were told we would not be allowed entry into Cairo and would be put on a plane," Maguire told AFP by telephone from London afterwards.

She had intended to join a delegation of activists going to the neighbouring Palestinian Gaza Strip.