Egypt has not requested an International Monetary Fund financing, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday, after an Egyptian minister said the country may resume talks with the global lender on a loan program. \"The authorities have not requested an IMF arrangement,\" IMF spokesman David Hawley told a regular briefing with reporters. \"In the past months we have maintained a close dialogue with authorities,\" he added. Egypt\'s Planning and International Cooperation Minister Faiza Abu el-Naga told reporters in Cairo earlier on Thursday that Egypt \"may need to restart talks with the IMF to obtain loans\". The IMF has said it has roughly $35 billion to lend to countries in the Middle East and North Africa following a year of political turmoil that has toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.