°®Âþµº

Italy is expected to stop supplying parts for warplanes to Egypt in protest against the murder of an Italian student earlier this year.

The Italian Senate voted to halt supplies to Egypt for its F16 fighter planes and demanded further cooperation to bring those responsible for the killing of Giulio Regeni to justice.

Wednesday's vote in the Italian Senate - which followed a heated debate - marked the first commercial steps taken against Cairo after previous actions proved ineffective.

Nicola Latorre, a senator from Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party, told Reuters the vote was aimed at putting pressure on Egypt to help "the truth emerge more quickly" over the killing.

Centre-right lawmakers warned that it would hurt relations with "an ally in the fight against terrorism", Reuters reported.

Rome has frequently criticised Egyptian authorities for their lack of cooperation in the ongoing investigation into the death of the 28-year-old Italian student in Cairo, withdrawing its ambassador to Egypt in April.

Last week, the parents of the murdered student called upon the European Union to implement sanctions on Egypt during at a meeting with a human rights committee in Brussels.

The call for increased pressure of Egypt came as Regeni's bereaved parents accused the Egyptian government of failing to cooperate fully with the investigation into his death. 

Regeni, a 28-year-old Italian PhD student who was researching Egyptian trade unions, went missing in Cairo on the evening of 25 January, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that overthrew former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

His mutilated body was found a week later at the side of a road on Cairo's outskirts, suggesting he died of torture at the hands of security services during an interrogation, an allegation the Egyptian government has strongly denied.