About 85 percent of USAID's funds to Egypt since 25 January has gone to US organizations, including the National Democratic Institute and the International Republic Institute, a US official told the Christian Science Monitor.
The official, whose name the newspaper did not mention, said the money was directed to training programs on practicing politics, and to bolster political parties' ability to participate effectively in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
He added that most of this money, estimated at about US$65 million, has been already spent and that a small amount of it was granted to civil society organizations in Egypt.
The official said that the decision to grant these organizations aid was taken since Hosni Mubarak resigned from the presidency, because the US administration believed that the revolution had succeeded, so Egyptians would need awareness programs.
He said the US administration did not expect such an angry response from the Egyptian government.
The State Security prosecution has been probing foreign funding of civil society groups amid signs of tensions between Washington and Egypt's ruling generals, judicial sources said on Friday. The probe, which the sources said was focusing on US funding, came as Washington said it had raised concerns with the military about "anti-Americanism" in Egypt.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
