Egypt's cabinet has approved a deal between the Egyptian oil ministry and its Jordanian counterpart to raise the price of gas exports to Jordan, the state news agency MENA said on Thursday.

According to the Arabic Ahram Online, the new price for exported gas will range from $ 4.9 to $7.9 per million British Thermal Unit [BTU]; the present price ranges from $2 to $2.15 per million BTU. "The new prices will be applied retroactively from January 2011 until June 30, 2013," says a report on the site.

Gas supplies to Israel have been suspended following a series of attacks this year on the pipeline in the Sinai border region by assailants believed to oppose the sale of gas to Israel.

A previous gas deal between Egypt and Jordan had been signed in 2004 and was meant to last 15 years. It stipulated the export of 240 million cubic feet of gas a day, enough to generate around 80 per cent of Jordan's power.

In July 2010, the two countries agreed to but did not sign a deal for additional exports that would bring the total figure to 300 million cubic feet per day.

Mohamed Hegazy, the cabinet's official spokesman, "expressed appreciation to the Jordanian side for understanding the considerations that called for the price hike due to changes in global energy prices and to achieve the appropriate economic return for Egypt," MENA said on Thursday.