Egypt and Saudi Arabia had signed a batch of memorandums of understanding regarding Saudi's financial aid pledged by the kingdom last year, Saudi ambassador to Egypt Ahmad al-Qattan said here on Thursday.

The aid package includes the deposit of one billion U.S. dollars in the Central Bank of Egypt, 500 million dollars for development projects in Egypt, 250 million dollars to buy petroleum products for the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, and 200 million dollars in non-repayable grants for small-and- medium-sized enterprises, Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted Qattan as saying.

The financial support deals came after a brief crisis between the two countries. Saudi recalled its ambassador back for about one week on April 28 after several days of protests of Egyptians near the Saudi embassy in Cairo demanding the release of an Egyptian lawyer detained by Saudi authorities for carrying drugs.

Egypt swiftly worked to resolve the crisis, with its ruling military council chief Hussein Tantawi calling Saudi King Abdullah to stress bilateral strong and brotherly relations. A parliamentary delegation later visited Saudi to mend bilateral ties. Qattan returned to Cairo on May 5.

Egypt is in desperate need of financial aid as political turmoil last year had dealt a heavy blow to the country's economy, especially its pillar tourism sector. The foreign reserved has fallen from 36 billion dollars to around 15 billion dollars.

Egypt's net foreign reserves increased slightly for the first time to reach 15.2 billion dollars in April, compared with 15.1 billion dollars in March, the Central Bank of Egypt said Sunday.