The action by Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi follows a recent meeting between Egyptian and Italian prosecutors, which his office said in a statement had caused “worry” to ripple through Rome over the prolonged investigation.

Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University graduate student who was researching trade unions in Egypt, disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, 2016 — the fifth anniversary of Egypt’s popular uprising against Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of police officers deployed across Cairo that day to preempt any attempt to mark the occasion.

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Regeni’s body was found several days later by the side of a highway near Cairo with torture marks that activists and rights groups say resembled the results of widespread torture practices in Egyptian detention facilities.

In the statement, Moavero relayed Italy’s concerns and the need to see “concrete” developments in the protracted investigation. Meanwhile, Egypt’s ambassador in Rome offered assurances of his country’s willingness to continue cooperation, the statement also said.

Later, Moavero was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as saying that the government will be discussing whether it would bar Italian companies from attending next week’s arms expo in Cairo, upon the return of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte from the Group of 20 summit in Argentina.

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Italian media are also reporting that prosecutors in Rome are set to launch an investigation into seven Egyptian secret service members who they suspect were involved in Regeni’s abduction and killing.

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Italy has been pressing Cairo for years to identify and prosecute those responsible for the torture and killing of Regeni. Its latest move comes a day after its ­Chamber of Deputies announced the suspension of relations with the Egyptian parliament, which said in a Friday statement that it was surprised by the Italian chamber’s “unilateral” decision. Egypt’s parliament also called for the non-politicization of legal issues.

Egypt has recently acknowledged that Regeni was being watched by police while in Cairo because of the nature of his research. The case previously roiled Cairo’s relations with Rome, with Regeni’s family and Italian media accusing Egyptian security forces of torturing and killing him.