A toddler who was abducted in Egypt has been reunited with her mother.

Two-year-old A'ishah Sabra, from Whitefield, was bundled into the back of a car and driven away during a supervised visit with her father Saber Mesbah Sabra in May last year.

Since then, her mother Leila has scoured Egypt looking for her daughter.

But yesterday the toddler was returned to her mother in an emotional reunion in Egypt.

A'ishah's father is being held by Egyptian police.

Leila was helped in her search by Bury South MP and Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis, who held crunch talks with the Egyptian interior minister last week.

Mr Lewis said: "I am so pleased for Leila that this nightmare has had a happy ending. I hope she and A'ishah will be left in peace to rebuild their loving relationship.

"I would like to place on record my appreciation for the government and ambassador in Egypt and the UK embassy staff for their determination to fight for A'ishah's safe return."
 
Maryam Khan, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Bury North, helped raise funds in the community for Leila's travel expenses to Egypt.

She said: "I was absolutely delighted when I heard the news that A'ishah was found safe and well. For any mother, the worry that your daughter is missing and you don't know whether she is alright, whether she's being well fed or looked after, it must be the worst feeling in the world.

"I'm just really pleased for Leila and I'll be really pleased to get her home."
 
Leila met her former husband when she went to Egypt on holiday in November 2005.

They kept in contact when she returned home and married in Egypt the following July.

Leila took her daughter to live in the tourist resort of Hurghada, in Egypt, where her ex-husband ran a quad bike tours company. Within weeks the relationship had broken down and she returned to England.

They divorced in Manchester in June last year, agreeing that A'ishah would live with her mother, but visit Egypt once a year to see her father.

They visited her father's family home in Kafr El Sheikh last December and returned to Hurghada on May 8.

A'ishah was abducted on May 16. 
Due to legal issues, it remains unclear about when A'ishah and her mother can return to the UK.