United States officials have said that Washington was poised to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt.

The announcement is expected later this week.

The US has been considering the cut since the Egyptian military ousted President Mohammed Morsi in June but has held off because of the influence such aid buys in the strategically important country.

It would be a dramatic shift for the Obama administration, which has declined to call the military takeover a coup and claimed it is in US national interests to keep aid flowing.

President Barack Obama's advisers recommended the aid cut-off in August and he had been expected to announce it last month.

But the announcement got sidetracked by the debate over whether to launch military strikes against Syria.

The US provides Egypt with $1.5 billion (£940 million) a year in aid, $1.3bn (£815m) of which is in military assistance.

Presidential advisers have recommended that the amount to be withheld includes all military financing except money that supports security in Sinai and along Egypt's Gaza border.

Assistance to US companies that sell Egypt military equipment would be suspended if Mr Obama accepts the recommendation but the firms would be compensated with so-called "wind-up" payments that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a speech at the UN last month President Obama said the US had held up the delivery of certain military aid and added that future support "will depend upon Egypt's progress in pursuing a democratic path."