The Pharaohs will play Tanzania at Cairo Stadium on January 5 before taking on Kenya three days later.

They will also face Uganda on January 14 and will wrap up the tournament against Sudan on January 17.

Widespread reports suggest that the tournament will be held to ease tensions between Egypt and several of its neighbors over the Nile river saga.

Upstream Nile Basin countries - including the likes of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda - are at odds with Egypt over the distribution of river water.

Egypt has the lion's share of the Nile water with 55.5 billion cubic meters a year.

Hassan Shehata's men will be looking to make the most of the tournament after some disappointing performances of late.

The African champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Sierra Leone before suffering a stunning 1-0 defeat at tiny Niger in their first two games of the 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers.

They gave their fans something to cheer about by crushing Australia 3-0 in a friendly lost month but could not build on that convincing win after slumping to a surprise 2-1 at Qatar earlier this week.