The United States said Tuesday it was "cautiously encouraged" by a timeline proposed by Egypt's interim rulers for elections to replace ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Washington also again walked a fine line on the issue of whether it would brand the military takeover as a "coup" -- a move that would cut $1.5 billion in U.S. aid.

Egypt's armed forces warned on Tuesday against any attempt to disrupt the country's "difficult and complex" transition.

The statement, read out on state television, comes almost a week after the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and appointed top judge Adly Mansour as caretaker leader.

The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it has offered Egypt an aid package of $3 billion, just days after it hailed the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian army.

The package includes a grant of $1 billion and a $2 billion interest-free deposit in Egypt's central bank, WAM state news agency said.

The Egyptian authorities were set to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, which has been closed since Friday, to allow entry to the territory, the Hamas government that rules the Palestinian territory said.

"The crossing will be open tomorrow from 8:30 am until 2:30 pm (Wednesday from 0530 GMT until 1130 GMT) for arrivals, and for departures only for the sick and holders of Egyptian or foreign passports," Hamas's deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hammad said in a statement.

Egypt's Tamarod campaign, which launched the protests that prompted the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi, called on Tuesday for changes to a proposed interim charter, their spokesman told AFP.

Mahmud Badr said his group was drafting proposed amendments to the temporary constitution unveiled earlier on Tuesday by army-installed caretaker President Adly Mansour which sets out a blueprint for a political transition.

Syrians travelling to Egypt are now required to apply for a visa, after the authorities in Cairo issued a new rule amid soaring unrest in the country, consulate staff in Beirut told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

"There is a decision from Cairo that any Syrian travelling to Egypt must apply for a visa at the Egyptian embassy," a staff member at the Egyptian consulate in Beirut said.

Russia on Tuesday urged "free and fair" elections in Egypt that would stabilize the restive country after the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi and continuing violent protests.

"We support all efforts directed at ending the violence and confrontation" and moving toward "transparent and inclusive ... free and fair elections," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Israel has urged Washington not to suspend its annual $1.3 billion in aid to Cairo in the wake of the ouster of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi by the military, press reports said on Tuesday.

Under U.S. law, all military and economic aid must be suspended to any country where the government is overthrown by the military, although Washington has not yet determined whether it considers the June 30 removal of Morsi was actually a coup -- a claim made by the Muslim Brotherhood, to which the ousted president belongs.

The United States has spent billions in aid to Egypt, but the education of thousands of officers at elite American academies is equally vital to the close military ties between Washington and Cairo.

As Egypt convulses with deadly political tumult, such calculated, decades-long nurturing of army relations emerges as a key element as Washington engages a vital Mideast ally in the aftermath of the Egyptian military's ouster of president Mohamed Morsi last week.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned the latest wave of bloodshed in Egypt, calling for an independent inquiry into fresh violence which left more than 50 people dead.

Fifty-one people, mostly loyalists of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, were killed outside an army barracks in Cairo on Monday.