CAIRO: Egypt has decided to open negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “within a couple weeks,” for a new $3.2 billion dollar finance package to help aid the ailing Egyptian economy, according to Egyptian Minister of Finance Hazem el-Beblawi on Friday. Earlier this summer, Egypt's finance officials decided to turn down the same aid package, expressing a wish to solve Egypt's economic problems through regional rather than international aid. “We will ask them to come to negotiations and most probably it will be based on the previous one,” el-Beblawi told Reuters. Egypt has not formally sent the IMF a request for negotiations, however, it will come soon, according to el-Beblawi. “The IMF stands ready to help Egypt and its people and continues to maintain a close policy dialogue with the government,” said a leading IMF economist in an interview with the IMF's online magazine, the IMF Survey. BM