Egypt's public prosecution released a joint statement with its Italian counterpart on Monday regarding the latest developments in the investigation into the murder of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo last year, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

According to the statement, Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek discussed with Rome's Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone by phone the latest developments in the investigations being carried out by the Egyptians since the meeting between the Egyptian and Italian teams in May.

The statement explained that the discussion mainly focused on updates regarding authorities' questioning of police officers who had investigated the Cambridge doctoral student after he was reported to them by the head of the street vendors syndicate, who he had interviewed for his academic research.

Regeni was conducting research on trade unions before he went missing on January 25 last year. His body was found with signs of torture on 3 February on the outskirts of the capital.

According to the Egyptian interior ministry, the police stopped investigating the Italian student days before his disappearance.

His murder cast a shadow on Egyptian-Italian relations and Rome recalled its ambassador in April 2016, expressing concerns about the lack of transparency in the investigations and calling for the truth about the case.

Sadek and Pignatone also discussed the retrieval of the CCTV footage from security cameras at Dokki metro station, which reportedly recorded the last images of the Italian student before his disappearance.

Italian news agency ANSA quoted unnamed sources as saying that Egyptian prosecutors sent their Italian counterparts transcripts of fresh questioning of the police officers who carried out a probe into Regeni's death.

Following the call between the two prosecutors on Monday, the Italian foreign ministry announced that the Italian ambassador to Cairo would return to his post in the Egyptian capital.