The Egyptian government will probably delay offering a second tranche of Telecom Egypt, the country's sole fixed-line operator, on the stock exchange beyond 2009, the communications minister said on Monday.

"There were plans that the government would offer an additional tranche of Telecom Egypt on the stock market. We were planning for this to happen in 2009, but all indications confirm that we will postpone this offering," said Tarek Kamel, minister of communications and information technology.-Reuters