A Kuwaiti lawmaker is demanding that Kuwait's security services be on the lookout for Muslim Brotherhood cells seeking to destabilize the emirate.

This comes in the wake of the announcement of the alleged discovery of Brotherhood cells in the nearby United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan acknowledged that some of the 11 people detained by UAE authorities are Brotherhood members but denied that they were seeking to destabilize the country, according to Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper.

An informed source told the Emirati newspaper Al-Khaleej that members of the group had held "secret meetings" and recruited Egyptian expatriates from across the UAE to join their ranks.

"Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had offered (the cell's members) courses... on elections and the means of changing leadership in Arab countries," Al-Khaleej reported.

The UAE arrested about 60 Islamists last month, accusing them of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and plotting against governments in the Gulf region.

"We must be vigilant to ensure that we are immune to the threats of these cells," Kuwaiti lawmaker Abdullah Al Tamimi told Gulf News. "Kuwait must not be turned into an open field for such cells, especially that we have a large community of Egyptians. They are our brothers, but we categorically reject all sleeping terror cells that might infiltrate the Kuwaiti society and state institutions.

"The arrests of the Muslim Brotherhood cells do confirm that Kuwait could also be used by such cells."