CAIRO: Egypt on Thursday decried Washington’s decision to freeze a sizable chunk of its annual $1.5 billion aid to Egypt, saying the move was wrong and ill-timed.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Washington's suspension of military hardware deliveries to Egypt could be lifted based on the behavior of the country's rulers.

Kerry said the deliveries could resume if Cairo makes headway toward restoring civilian rule.

“So this would be on the basis of performance,” he said during a visit to Malaysia.

In Egypt’s first public reaction, the Foreign Ministry said the American move raised questions about Washington’s commitment to supporting the Arab nation’s security goals at a time when it is facing terrorist challenges.

The US announced the freezing of millions of dollars in aid, most of it meant for the armed forces, as a show of displeasure over the military’s ouster of President Muhammad Mursi and the subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood and other allies. Washington said the aid would be restored if “credible progress” was made toward setting up an inclusive, democratically elected government.

In its statement, the Foreign Ministry said Cairo was keen to maintain good relations with Washington, but will independently decide its domestic policies. It also said Egypt will work to secure its “vital needs” on national security, a thinly veiled threat that it would shop elsewhere for arms and military hardware.

The US State Department did not provide a dollar amount of what was being withheld, most of it is linked to military aid, but officials in Washington said the aid being withheld included 10 Apache helicopters at a cost of more than $500 million, M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

The US also is withholding $260 million in cash assistance to the government. The US had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and canceled biennial US-Egyptian military exercises.