The official spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Badr Abdel Ati, said the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum intensified contacts with Sudanese authorities to release a number of Egyptian fishermen detained in Sudan.

In press statements on Wednesday, Abdel Ati said the Egyptian consulate in Port Sudan hired a lawyer to defend the fishermen and exerted efforts to offer good living for them during their detention.

For his part, Sudanese Ambassador to Egypt Abdel Mahmoud Abdel Halim ruled out any espionage charges against the fishermen, saying he contacts Sudan's authorities to settle the fishermen problems and release them, within the framework of brotherly relations between the two countries.