Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he would visit Libya soon and that the visit could be part of a tour that would include North African countries.

This came in remarks by Erdogan on board his return flight from a tour that included Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and northern Cyprus, according to the Turkey's Anadolu Agency.

The agency quoted Erdogan as saying: "We will hold our first meeting with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, and I hope that this step will be the beginning of a much better stage in Turkish-Israeli relations," adding that "the development of our relations with Egypt will enhance our economic energies, and I will visit Libya and perhaps a tour that includes some North African countries."

Erdogan pointed out that the leaders of the Gulf countries he visited welcomed the announcement of Turkey and Egypt raising their diplomatic relations and said: "In my private meetings with the leaders during my visit to the Gulf countries, I sensed that the step we took on Egypt (lifting diplomatic relations) made them really happy. And they all thanked us (for the move)."

In early July, Turkey and Egypt announced in a joint statement that diplomatic relations between them were raised to the level of ambassadors, Ankara nominated Salih Mutlu Şin as its ambassador to Cairo, and Egypt nominated Amr Al-Hamami as its ambassador to Ankara.