Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) announced on Thursday that 680 foreign journalists have been approved to cover the upcoming presidential elections in March.

The SIS said that 540 resident correspondents and 140 visiting correspondents from the United States, EU, the Middle East and Africa have received permits to cover the elections.

Earlier this month, the National Elections Authority (NEA) approved 1,558 Egyptian journalists from print, broadcast and TV news outlets to cover the elections, which are set to take place on 26-28 March.

Two candidates have registered to run in the elections; incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Ghad Party leader Moussa Mostafa Moussa.