The National Academy for Training (NAT), which is tasked with organising the dialogue, announced Wednesday that it will kick off in the first week of July.

A delegation from the Egyptian Social Democratic Party led by party leader Farid Zahran and his deputy MP Maha Abdel-Nasser visited the academy on Wednesday and met with its executive director Rasha Ragheb.

"During the meeting, leading officials Zahran and Abdel-Nasser submitted a detailed paper on the party's proposals for the agenda of the dialogue and how it should be organised and participants," said the statement, indicating that "the secretariat-general of the dialogue should comprise members from loyalist and opposition forces in a balanced way."

"During the meeting, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party stressed that political reform should be the centerpiece of the proposed national dialogue because it is the locomotive that will lead to economic and social reform in Egypt," said the statement.

In response, the NAT's executive director Rasha Ragheb stressed that the academy's role will be confined to just organising the national dialogue and that it deal with all participants on equal footing.

For his part, Mahmoud Fawzi, the newly-appointed secretary-general of the national dialogue, said it will coordinate with all political forces to draw up a clear-cut agenda for the dialogue and that its’ council of trustees includes members from all forces.