CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said on Sunday it would appeal an order by international arbitrators to pay $1.76 billion in compensation to state-owned Israel Electric Corp for halting agreed gas deliveries, and would freeze gas import talks until the dispute was resolved. Egypt's oil and gas import authorities, EGPC and EGAS, said in a statement that the arbitrator had also ordered them to pay $288 million to Egypt Mediterranean Gas (EMG), the company that oversaw the gas deal. EGAS and EGPC will also appeal that ruling, the statement said. They said in the statement they had "received instructions from the Egyptian government to freeze negotiations between companies to import gas from Israeli fields or to award import approvals until the legal position regarding the arbitration ruling and the results of the appeal are clear." (Writing by Lin Noueihed; editing by Jason Neely)