Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafiq has denied any intentions to withdraw from the presidential race in a press statement released on Wednesday.

Shafiq, who was appointed to the senior cabinet position by the ousted president Hosni Mubarak on 29 January last year, was responding to media rumours about his intentions to withdraw if Omar Suleiman ran for presidency.

Shafiq, a close associate of the former president, had been minister of civil aviation from 2002 and was credited with building a new terminal at Cairo Airport and upgrading Egyptian airports services and infrastructure.

A former fighter pilot, Shafiq served as commander of the Egyptian Air Force from between 1996 to 2002, a post Mubarak himself held before he became vice president of Egypt under former president Anwar Sadat. Shafiq's name was often mentioned as one of the potential successors to Mubarak.

Although many protesters are calling for the removal of Shafiq because of his connections to Mubarak, a Facebook group calling on Shafiq to run has gathered nearly 140,000 supporters.

Omar Suleiman, the 74-year-old former intelligence chief who held the shortest lived vice presidency in Egypt, is also rumoured to be running for presidency on account of the support he enjoys from the military establishment.

Suleiman became director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services (EGIS) in 1993, where he played a prominent diplomatic role including brokering Egypt's relations with Israel and the US.

Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential elections will take place in May. Registration for presidential candidates opens on 10 March, allowing one and a half months for campaigning.