Eygpt’s Orascom Telecom said on Sunday that it was ending its legal action against France Telecom in an Egyptian court in a long-running battle between the two companies over ECMS, Egypt’s largest mobile phone operator.

Orascom and France Telecom have been locked in a bitter dispute over the French company’s attempt to secure full ownership of ECMS, which has 21m customers. The two companies jointly control ECMS via Mobinil, which owns 51 per cent of the Egyptian mobile operator.