CAIRO, Dec. 27 (Aswat Masriya) - Talks between the water and foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam started Sunday in the Sudanese Capital Khartoum.

The two-day meeting is expected to address stalled issues with regards to the dam and find solutions for them. The tripartite national committee, which is composed of technical experts from the three states, is also included in the meeting.

Earlier in December, a similar meeting occurred between the water and foreign ministers of the three states, but had ended without reaching an agreement. The talks were focused on discussing the technical aspects of the Dam. It was then decided that the remaining political and technical sticking points were to be discussed in the following round of talks.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that current meeting is built upon earlier negotiations, bearing in mind the preliminary agreement on principles.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a preliminary agreement on the Ethiopian dam on March 23, during a meeting of the trio's top leadership in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Egypt water ministry announced on December 13 that the dam’s construction is 48 percent complete, but that the reservoir in which Nile water will be stored is only 20 percent complete. Egypt is concerned about how the dam will affect its share of Nile water.

For decades, Egypt has been receiving 55 billion cubic meters of the Nile river's water annually, the largest share, as per agreements signed in the past century in the absence of Ethiopia, whose Blue Nile tributary supplies most the water.