Seven days after the Egyptian military deposed the democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi, the United States has still not decided whether to call his ouster a "coup."

But top U.S. officials on Wednesday, while continuing to insist the United States was not taking sides in Egypt's political upheaval, sought to untangle the convoluted position taken by the Obama administration.

Energy-poor Jordan said on Wednesday that gas supplies from Egypt will resume within 10 days following sabotage to the export pipeline by militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

"The Egyptian authorities are expected to resume gas supplies to Jordan in a week or 10 days," Jordanian Energy Minister Malek Kabariti told state-run Petra news agency after a cabinet meeting.

Kuwait offered Egypt on Wednesday an aid package of $4 billion, a minister said, bringing to $12 billion the total pledges by Gulf monarchies to Cairo since the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last week.

"The council of ministers has approved an urgent aid package to our brothers in Egypt following instructions from the emir," State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah al-Sabbah said, according to the official KUNA news agency.

Egypt's public prosecutor on Wednesday ordered the arrest of Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohammed Badie and other top leaders of the movement for allegedly inciting violence that left dozens dead, judicial sources said.

At least 51 people were killed in clashes Monday outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi were calling for him to be reinstated.

Many devout Muslims in the Middle East have started observing the dawn-to-dusk fast for the month of Ramadan even as the region is rocked by Egypt's turmoil and the relentless civil war in Syria.

For most Sunnis and Shiites, Ramadan started on Wednesday while others are expected to begin observing the holy month on Thursday — differences based on various sightings of the new moon.

Egypt's National Salvation Front, the main coalition that backed the overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi, on Wednesday toned down its criticism of an interim charter to say it merely disagreed with some provisions.

On Tuesday night, the coalition had sent a statement saying: "The National Salvation Front announces its rejection of the constitutional decree."

Human rights groups condemned on Wednesday the use of "excessive" force by Egyptian security forces and called for an independent investigation into clashes outside an elite army unit that left more than 50 people dead.

In a joint statement, 15 leading Egyptian rights groups expressed their "strong condemnation of the excessive force used by army and security forces" against supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi who were protesting against his overthrow by the military.

Opponents and supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi blasted a new charter granting Egypt's interim president extensive powers, as talks for a new cabinet were to begin Wednesday.

The military's ouster a week ago of Morsi, after massive protests calling for his resignation, pushed the divided country into a vortex of violence that has already claimed dozens of lives.

Two people died in a militant attack on a security checkpoint in Egypt's Sinai on Wednesday, as a police base elsewhere in the peninsula came under mortar fire, medics said.

The medics and security officials said one of the dead appeared to be a civilian whose car was hit by a grenade. They did not identify the other casualty.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it would give Egypt $5 billion (3.9 billion euro) aid to support its economy, six days after the army toppled Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

The aid, which was decided by King Abdullah, will be made up of a $2 billion interest-free deposit in Egypt's central bank, a $1 billion donation and the equivalent of $2 billion in oil and gas products.