CAIRO, March 15 (Reuters) - A top Egyptian investigator said on Friday his country would reject any suggestion a co-pilot was responsible for the crash of an EgyptAir jet into the Atlantic more than two years ago, saying such a conclusion would show the crash investigation had failed. Aviation sources said on Thursday U.S. investigators had concluded that co-pilot Gamiel El Batouty's actions probably caused the Boeing 767-366 ER to crash off the Massachusetts coast on October 31, 1999, not mechanical or other problems. All 217 people aboard Flight 990 from New York to Cairo died in the crash. "We reject any suggestion placing responsibility on Batouty. These suggestions would show the failure of the committee to arrive at the cause of the accident," Egyptian chief investigator Mohsen Missiry said. But Missiry added that Egypt would be content with a final report that included both the Egyptian and U.S. perspectives on the crash. The report is expected to be released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in the next few days. "We would be content with the final report, including the American response and the Egyptian response to the accident. It will drop the curtain on this issue after more than two and a half years," he said. Sources in the United States who asked not to be named said board members had wrestled over whether to conclude that Batouty acted deliberately, and apparently left that language out of the report. They included findings of Egyptian investigators as a counterweight that suggested mechanical problems were to blame. EgyptAir and Egyptian investigators have steadfastly rejected the idea that a crew member would have brought the plane down. They have pressed U.S. investigators on possible mechanical problems, particularly with the 767's flight-control system. But U.S. investigators concluded there were no safety or mechanical issues with the aircraft that were related to the crash, two sources said. The cockpit voice recorder, retrieved after the crash, showed that Batouty was alone in the cockpit when the plane began its fatal plunge into the ocean, and that he repeatedly uttered in Arabic the words, "I rely on God," as the plane rapidly descended. The voice recorder also revealed that the pilot said "Pull with me!" several times in what was believed to be a desperate attempt to get the plane under control. The last contact with the plane was about three minutes before the crash, a routine transmission on air traffic procedures. A spokesman for EgyptAir had no comment on the board's final conclusions. ©2002 Reuters Limited.