Egyptian junta faces no-confidence vote by MPs

Almost all members of the recently elected People's Assembly opted to move ahead with the no-confidence procedure in a show of hands. The vote itself is expected to take place within weeks.

Members of the powerful Democratic Alliance for Egypt (DAE) coalition claimed the military and its interim civilian government were in the pockets of the US.

They said rulers had bowed to US pressure by lifting a travel ban on 43 employees of non-profit groups accused of using illegal foreign funds to destabilise Egypt.

The 43 include 16 US citizens, nine of whom were already outside the country. All but one fled the country the following day after the US paid a total of around £3.2m in bail.

The other 27 are mostly Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, and Germans.

The largest party in the DAE is the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which controls 43 per cent of the People's Assembly.

FJP MP Farid Ismail said the vote would be "a public declaration that the government isn't accepted by the street.

"We will continue escalating until the military council responds."

Independent socialist MP for Port Said and former docker el-Badri Farghali added: "Egypt should stop obtaining assistance from America because this is not assistance from America to Egypt but from Egypt to America.

"We want to uncover the names of all those who were involved in receiving money from this assistance."

Parliament speaker Saad el-Katatni of the FJP advised members of the US Congress to "listen carefully to the decisions of the Egyptian parliament - the parliament of the revolution - and know quite well that the Egyptian people will never tolerate a breach of the nation's sovereignty or interference in its affairs."

MPs insisted that Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri's government, which is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over a $3.2 billion (£2bn) loan, should be replaced by an administration that reflects the makeup of the elected assembly.