Egypt and Ethiopia's leaders have agreed to restart the work of a committee aimed at brokering an agreement on the operating terms of a giant hydropower dam, an Egyptian presidency spokesman said.
The apparent breakthrough on Thursday was announced after a meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
More:
It came after a long-running diplomatic spat between Cairo and Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Ethiopia's Blue Nile escalated in recent days, with bellicose rhetoric prompting a mediation offer from the United States.
The Egyptian foreign ministry on Wednesday said Cairo had accepted Washington's overture for a meeting of foreign ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the third nation affected by GERD, on the $5bn infrastructure project. It did not state a date for the talks, or if the other nations had agreed to attend.
But in his statement on Thursday, el-Sisi's spokesman made no mention of a mediator but said the technical committee would resume its work "in a more open and positive manner, in order to reach a final vision on the rules for filling and operating the dam".
Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs meanwhile confirmed el-Sisi and Abiy had held "discussions" over the project in a post on Twitter.