CAIRO, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is facing two biggest challenges to maintain economic growth rate and expand social justice in the populous Arab country, President Hosni Mubarak said Saturday.

    Delivering a keynote speech at the 5th session of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) annual conference, Mubarak described economic growth and social justice as the two priorities of the party and the government.

    The party and the government will continue reforms "without delay," said Mubarak, noting the limited-income people will be protected and the middle class will be supported.

    With the slogan "New Thought for Egypt's Future," the party conference opened Saturday amid concerns over the negative impact of the current global financial crisis to the Egyptian economy.

    Noting the world economy is facing recession, Mubarak said the Egyptian government has to take measures to preserve its high growth rates.

    According to earlier reports, the current global financial turmoil may slow down Egypt's economic growth rate from more than 7 percent to 6 percent.

    Mubarak voiced his confidence that the Egyptian banking system has the strength to avoid negative impact of the financial crisis.

    The banking system has been injected more than 30 billion pounds (some 5.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the past four years to protect the banks' credits, he said.

    Attended by some 2,700 party members and leaders, the NDP conference focuses on the party's vision on various fields of Egypt's development, including social justice, fighting poverty, democracy, investment, employment, education, health care, food security, agricultural and urban development.