The government is in talks with international lenders to finance studies to link Argeen on the Egypt-Sudan border to Khartoum as part of a proposed Cairo-Cape Town highway project, sources said. The African Export–Import Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation have been approached by the government for the project, which has already entered its first EGP 7 bn phase. The first phase involves a direct link between Cairo and Minya. The second, third and fourth phases will begin at Minya and end at Argeen.