Questions have been raised about the suitability of inviting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Australia, due to the Egyptian regime's abysmal record on human rights.

Key points: Malcolm Turnbull believed to have extended invitation during G20 summit

Malcolm Turnbull believed to have extended invitation during G20 summit Activist calls for human rights to be high on agenda of any meeting

Activist calls for human rights to be high on agenda of any meeting Peter Greste wants Mr Turnbull to ensure names of convicted journalists are cleared

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull invited Mr Sisi to visit after a meeting between the two leaders last week during the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China.

The ABC understands the invite was issued after Mr Sisi invited Mr Turnbull to Egypt with the Prime Minister responding that Mr Sisi would also be welcome in Australia. No timeframe has been discussed for the potential visit.

Amnesty International's Diana Sayed said her organisation had documented the Egyptian Government's continued abuses, including enforced disappearances, torture and crackdowns on freedom of expression.

"Our hope and our expectation is that, should President Sisi accept the Prime Minister's invitation to visit Australia, human rights will have a prominent place on the agenda," Ms Sayed told the ABC.

A leading Egyptian human rights campaigner condemned the invite and said the situation in Egypt was so bad they could not be publicly identified making such remarks.

"I am asking you to keep my identity anonymous because [those] who criticise the regime might be arrested, tortured, enforced to disappear or prosecuted and detained by the Egyptian authorities," the Cairo-based human rights activist told the ABC.

The activist said civil society organisations in Egypt were being closed, their members arrested and human rights campaigners banned from travelling.

"The number of those in cells because of political charges is in the tens of thousands," the activist said.

"I think such welcoming and invitations don't consider the human rights violations which occur in Egypt nowadays.

"It sends a message saying that we care about our commercial and economic interests but not human rights."

Greste hopes Turnbull has sought Sisi assurances

Malcolm Turnbull is said to have extended an invite to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during the G20 Summit in China. ( Reuters: Mark Schiefelbein/Pool )

Last September, Mr Turnbull said his Government would continue to press the Government of Egypt to pardon Australian journalist Peter Greste, who spent more than a year in an Egyptian prison with his two Al Jazeera colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed.

"I want Peter … to know that the Australian Government continues to support you and your colleagues and we will continue to press the Government of Egypt to pardon you and the other journalists with whom you worked," Mr Turnbull said in a speech at a memorial honouring war correspondents in Canberra.

Mr Greste said he hoped Mr Turnbull had sought that assurance from Mr Sisi in regards to his outstanding conviction, before issuing the invite.

"President Sisi had already taken the first step by pardoning my colleagues but I still carry the conviction and the outstanding prison sentence," Mr Greste told the ABC.

"I trust that the Prime Minister has agreed to the meeting on the unequivocal understanding that Egypt is now ready to clear the names of all who remain convicted, including myself.

"I am looking forward to formal confirmation."

The ABC asked Mr Turnbull's office if they had sort those assurances from Mr Sisi but it declined to comment.