An Egyptian museum has renewed calls for the Rosetta Stone to be returned back to Egypt after more than 200 years in the British Museum.

The ancient slab, which is engraved with three languages and unlocked the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphs, has been a long-running source of tension between Cairo and London.

British soldiers captured the stone in 1801 after defeating Napoleon’s army in Egypt and transferred it to the British Museum, where it has long been the most-visited object.

Dr Tarek Tawfik, the director of the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), said he was eager to see the Rosetta Stone back in Egypt.

“It would be great to have the Rosetta Stone back in Egypt but this is something that will still need a lot of discussion and co-operation,” Dr Tawfik told the Evening Standard.

He said he was involved in “vivid discussions” about possibly returning the Rosetta Stone to his own museum.