Italy's parliament speaker Roberto Fico on Monday called for a "solution" to the unsolved case of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni's 2016 killing and said the ongoing probe must soon result in a trial.
"Sisi assured me that it is a priority for Egypt to shed light on this case," Fico said after talks in Cairo on Monday with Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi .
"But I was also very clear in telling him that we now need the facts - a solution is necessary," Fico added.
"After two and half years, we need to get to a trial. Without this step forward inter-parliamentary relations will clearly be complex," he said.
Deputy premiers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini have both held talks with Sisi this summer on Regeni's murder and urged Egypt to solve the case as did senior officials from Italy's previous centre-left government.
Regeni, 28, was abducted in Cairo on 25 January 2016 and tortured to death. His mutilated body was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo nine days later.
Regeni’s death strained relations between the two countries as Rome in 2016 recalled its ambassador over Cairo’s failure to cooperate in the investigation. Ties were restored 15 months later when Italy sent a new envoy.
Regeni had been doing postgraduate research into Egyptian trade unions before his death and there was widespread suspicion among western diplomats and in the Italian press that Egypt's security forces were behind his slaying - a belief shared by Regeni's family and activists.
The Egyptian government denies any state involvement in Regeni's murder and Sisi has continued to vow to bring his killers to justice.