CAIRO, May 24 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouli told Aswat Masriya that Emirati construction firm Arabtec Holding "has not abandoned" Egypt, in statements on Monday.

Egypt and Arabtec had agreed earlier this year on a project which will see the Gulf-based firm build a million housing units in 13 sites across Egypt. This agreement was reached after a long negotiation process.      

Cairo-based financial newspaper Almal cited an anonymous source at the housing ministry as saying that the agreement between Egypt and Arabtec has "collapsed", in its issue today.  

Meanwhile, Madbouli said the company only requested a delay to sort a number of problems it is facing.

The minister said the ministry has not received a notice from the Emirati firm indicating that the firm is waiving the agreement.

In March 2014, Arabtec signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian Defence Ministry but the project was slowed down during negotiations on the final details. 

Eventually, in March of this year Madbouli announced that Arabtec has accepted the Egyptian government's conditions on the major real estate project. 

In April, Arabtec confirmed this in a statement and agreed to implement the first phase of the project, amounting to 100,000 housing units in two cities on the outskirts of Cairo.

Nonetheless, a final deal was never signed between Egypt and the construction firm.