Egypt has pulled out of hosting the African men’s Olympic qualifying tournament.

The eight-team competition was to be played in Cairo from 26 November to 10 December, with the top three teams qualifiying for London 2012. Egypt has informed the Confederation of African Football of its decision, which it says is because of upcoming parliamentary elections.

There has been further unrest in Cairo in recent days. Alongside Egypt, the other participating teams are Algeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

Caf is labelling the competition as Africa’s first Under-23 Championship.

The continent already has competitions at both Under-17 and Under-20 level, where the top four automatically qualify for Fifa’s finals at those age levels.

There has been no response from Caf to Egypt’s decision as yet.