CAIRO: A report issued by the American Congressional Research Service said there are differences between Egypt and the United States about how to determine the form of the annual aid given to Egypt, especially in the light of an agreement between the two nations to reduce economic aid, but maintain military assistance, America in Arabic reported on Sunday. The new report comes after an earlier report this month said that Washington would end aid to Egyptian NGO's not on an approved government list, which led to widespread anger among dozens of local independent NGO's that would lose much of their funding. The report published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that Egypt and the US “did not agree on how to reduce aid over the next decade. “ The report revealed that Egypt is seeking to establish a “fund to finance development projects jointly” and that this fund would be primarily paid by Egypt. The details of this proposal are not clear. One analyst in Cairo says this could mean that leftover money given by the US would be saved for these independent projects. “But, it remains unclear exactly what is going to happen,” an American security expert who asked not to be named due to current employment restrictions. The report consisted of 28 pages and was published by the America in Arabic news agency. Egypt's aim of this fund is that it “will protect the country form an annual allocation process” in Congress, which is usually used by the American legislatures each year to impose conditions on the aid Egypt recieves. The report, written by Jeremy Sharp, a specialist in Egyptian and Arabic affairs at the Congressional Research Service was quoted saying that “until now there is very limited interest in pursuing the idea of the Fund by the United States and Congress.” American civilian economic aid to Egypt, read as non-military aid, began in 1975 via efforts made by Henry Kissinger, former American Secretary of State, and the amount was upped to $815 million a year after Egypt signed a peace agreement with Israel and the money is devoted mostly to the process of opening the Egyptian market for American companies. Beginning in 1998, a decline in aid per year began, with an initial deduction of around $40 million following an American-Egyptian agreement. In 2008, according to CRS statistics, economic aid reached only $407 million. Military aid has remain nearly untouched, and in 2006 amounted to a whopping $1.3 billion annually since 1979 – the same year Egypt and Israel made peace. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
