20100919
africanews

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss ways to resolve a dispute over real estate firm Talaat Moustafa Group's (TMG) $3 billion Madinaty flagship development, the housing ministry said on Sunday.

The cabinet spokesman said last week a legal solution to the row -- which has rattled investors who are concerned that other land deals in the real estate sector could be challenged -- would be sent to the prime minister in days.

"The Wednesday meeting will seek a solution that takes into consideration not just the Talaat Moustafa case but all other real estate firms in the country," Abdel-Hamid Shaer, media adviser for the Housing Ministry, told Reuters.

Housing Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi said the solutions being worked on were in line with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's announcement on the case, the daily al-Masry al-Youm reported, citing comments the minister made on a television programme.

The minister said one of the possible solutions was pushing forward new legislation in the next parliamentary session, to resolve any legal ambiguity in laws governing government land sales, to avoid another TMG case from being repeated.

A parliamentary election is due in November.

Nazif told state newspaper al-Ahram last week the government was giving priority to the Talaat Moustafa case:

"The government is keen on the continuity of the project, while bearing in mind the rights of all parties," he said.

President Hosni Mubarak, also stepped in on Sunday, ordering a impartial and independent legal advisory committee be put in place to "resolve the Madinaty case", the state news agency reported.