Italy's foreign ministry formally summoned on Friday the Egyptian ambassador to Rome to prompt Egyptian authorities to "act rapidly" in investigating the torture and killing of an Italian researcher nearly three years ago.

The decision by Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi comes after a recent meeting between Egyptian and Italian prosecutors. His office said in a statement that that the 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 January 25, 2016 — the fifth anniversary of Egypt's popular uprising when thousands of police deployed across Cairo to pre-empt any attempt to mark the occasion.

His 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 to Rome offered assurances of his country's willingness to continue cooperation, it also said.

Later, Moavero was quoted by 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 G20 summit in Argentina

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 regretted the decision calling it "unilateral" in a Friday statement. 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. Egyptian authorities have denied any involvement and since 2016 have suggested several alternative scenarios for his death, including being hit by a car or victimized by a criminal gang that specializes in robbing foreigners.