CAIRO (AP) — The International Monetary Fund is sending a senior official to Cairo this weekend to discuss issues that have delayed a $4.8 billion loan seen as a final lifeline to rescue Egypt, a political heavyweight in the region.

Egypt’s multibillion dollar loan request is considered crucial to freeing up other loans and reassuring foreign investors who abruptly pulled their money out of the country when longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in early 2011.