"The minister's decision has in fact been issued but it will be announced at the start of next week in a press conference," the paper said on Friday, quoting Hany Mahana, spokesman for the minister of social solidarity.

The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and formally dissolved by Egypt's army rulers in 1954. The NGO was formally registered in March, in response to a lawsuit that maintained the movement had no legal status.

There were no reports on whether the new ruling affects the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which is the political wing of the Brotherhood in Egypt.

In July the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was ousted by the army in response to mass protests.

This is while, the Egyptian interim government retreated from dissolving the Muslim Brotherhood amid simmering tensions in the country in August.

“Dissolving the party or the group is not the solution and it is wrong to make decisions in turbulent situations,” Egypt’s interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a statement.

Egyptian security guards have arrested hundreds of Morsi's supporters including top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in recent days as the military-backed government seeks to end weeks of protests and to stamp its authority on the deeply polarized North African nation.

Nearly 1,000 people were killed in a week of violence between Morsi fans and security forces after police attacked their protest camps in a deadly operation on August 14.

The massacre sparked international condemnation and prompted world bodies to call for an independent investigation into the violence.

NTJ/BA