Egypt said on Friday it had received a request for Iranian naval vessels to pass through the Suez Canal, a move Israel’s right-wing foreign minister has described as "provocative".

“We sent it to the relevant authorities,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman told Reuters, adding the request had been passed to the Defence Ministry and the Suez Canal Authority.

He did not say when any decision on such a crossing would be made. To pass through the strategic waterway, naval vessels need the approval of the foreign and defence ministries. Iran has said the two ships, a frigate and supply ship, planned to cross.

To pass through the strategic waterway, naval vessels need the approval of Egypt’s foreign and defence ministries.

Iranian state television said on Thursday the two warships were due to pass through the strategic waterway, the first Iranian military vessels to transit the canal since the country’s 1979 revolution.

Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that Iran’s plan to send the ships through the canal en route to Syria, an ally of Tehran, was a “provocation”.

Israel’s state-funded Channel One television said Lieberman, a stridently far-right partner in the conservative coalition, had spoken out of turn and that the Defence Ministry “had preferred to ignore” the ships’ approach.

Iran’s move is an unwelcome distraction for Egypt’s interim military government, which has close ties to the United States and has been ruling since Feb. 11, when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the face of a popular revolt.

The canal is a vital commercial and strategic artery between Europe and the Gulf region and Asia. It is also a major source of revenues for the Egyptian government.