Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has conducted phone calls with a number of US congressmen recently to discuss the latest developments in the dispute between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), as well as the crisis in Libya, according to a statement by the foreign ministry on Tuesday.

The calls come within the framework of the continuing communication with the US side at all levels of the decision-making circle, ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said, and included both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are engaged in talks on the GERD that are mediated by the African Union (AU) in an attempt to solve the decade-long dispute over the mega-dam. The US, along with the EU and South Africa, the current president of the AU, are observing the ongoing talks.

The AU talks come months after the breakdown of US-sponsored meetings in Washington in February, when Addis Ababa pulled out of the last meeting.

In the calls, Shoukry reviewed the Egyptian vision of addressing the different challenges facing the Middle East and Egypt's role to enhance stability and reach political solutions on all regional issues, as well as countering the negative role of some countries in destabilising the region, the statement added.

Egypt announced last month an initiative dubbed the Cairo Declaration which aim to solve the Libyan crisis. The initiative mandates an intra-Libyan resolution as a basis for resolving the conflict, following resolutions by the UN and the conclusion of the Berlin conference.

The phone calls touched upon other international and regional issues, including the crisis in Syria and the Palestinian cause, Hafez said.

The discussions also dealt with aspects of strategic relations between the two countries in the political, economic, and security fields, as well as the ways for the US Congress to support the strategic partnership between Egypt and the US.