US 'planning to withhold military aid to Egypt' The official said US President Barack Obama had not made a final decision on the issue, which has vexed US officials as they balance a desire to be seen promoting democracy and rights with a desire to maintain some cooperation with the military. The Egyptian military on July 3 overthrew President Mohammed Morsi, who emerged from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement to become the country's first freely elected president last year after the February 2011 fall of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak. After the ousting of Mr Morsi, the Obama administration said it would suspend about $585 million in military assistance to Egypt pending a wider policy review. The US official said the administration was now leaning toward continuing to withhold most of that, with the exceptions described above. Earlier, CNN quoted a US official as saying that an "accumulation of events," including recent violence, had led to the decision on a "full suspension" of aid. But Caitlin Hayden, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, denied a full cutoff of military aid. "The reports that we are halting all military assistance to Egypt are false," she said in an emailed statement. We will announce the future of our assistance relationship with Egypt in the coming days, but as the president made clear at (the UN General Assembly), that assistance relationship will continue.