CAIRO, Dec 20 (Aswat Masriya) – The United States' Department of State expressed its "disappointment" with Egyptian authorities' decision to ban an American researcher from entering the country, during a Friday press briefing.

Michele Dunne, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) and former United States diplomat, arrived to Cairo from Istanbul last week, before she was forced to exit the country.

"We are disappointed at the government in Egypt's decision to deny entry to Ms. Dunne, a well-regarded scholar of Egyptian affairs," said Jen Psaki, U.S. State Department spokeswoman.

Psaki said the issue has been raised with the Egyptian government, adding that "it is our understanding that she was not banned from entering the country."

Airport security sources said Egypt’s Homeland Security (formerly known as State Security) had put Dunne on an entry ban list.

The foreign ministry nevertheless said in a statement that Dunne had applied for a visa back at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, yet she withdrew her application before receiving the visa.

The ministry added that only tourism visas to Egypt could be instantly acquired upon the visitors' arrival at the airport, stressing that Dunne did not need a tourism visa.

"We think discouraging travel to Egypt sends exactly the wrong signal to the international community," Psaki said.

Dunne was travelling to Cairo to attend a conference of the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs.

She is known to be a critic of the Egyptian regime which took charge since the military ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, following mass protests against his rule.

Dunne works at the CEIP's Middle East programme. She is an expert on political and economic change in Arab countries, especially in Egypt.

The researcher told Reuters on Saturday that she has been visiting Egypt "two to four times a year, for the past 10 years at least."

The CEIP is a Washington-based international affairs think tank.

On August 11, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth and Middle East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson were denied entry at the Cairo International Airport and forced to fly back.

Egypt's Ministry of Interior had claimed then that the HRW delegation did not secure an entry visa into Egypt.

Roth and Whitson were travelling to Cairo to attend the release of a report by the international watchdog on the violent dispersal of two pro-Mursi encampments in August, 2013, which left hundreds of protesters killed.