Egypt's army chief of staff Lieutenant General Sedki Sobhi met on Thursday with Lieutenant General James L Terry, head of the infantry forces in the US Central Command, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.

The two men discussed military bilateral cooperation and joint military exercises between Egypt and the United States.

The two countries have been at odds since Egypt's military ousted president Mohamed Morsi in July, following mass protests calling for the Islamist leader to step down. On 15 August, the US cancelled a series of joint military exercises with Egypt. A month earlier, Washington halted the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets.

However, in his latest address to the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September, US President Barack Obama said that his country would continue to "maintain a constructive relationship" with Egypt's interim government which "promotes core interests like the Camp David Accords" and "counterterrorism," but said that the delivery of some military systems would be delayed.

The US gives Egypt 1.5billion dollars in annual, predominantly military, aid.