FOREIGN Minister Nabil Fahmy has revealed Egypt will hold parliamentary elections between February and March, followed by presidential polls in early summer.
He also said the political arm of ousted President Mohamed Mursi's banned Muslim Brotherhood could take part.
Mr Fahmy's comments provided the most specific timeline yet for the end of the interim army-backed government and a return to electoral politics in the Arab world's most populous country, which since Mr Mursi's overthrow on July 3 has seen some of the worst violence in its modern history.
Mr Fahmy said the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of Mr Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, "is still legal in Egypt" and free to participate in the parliamentary election.
The Brotherhood failed in an attempt on Wednesday to overturn a court ruling banning it, and Mr Mursi himself is on trial on charges of inciting violence during his rule.
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