Egypt president Morsi alters image

CAIRO -- Egypt's military signaled its acquiescence yesterday to the president's surprise decision to retire the defense minister and chief of staff and retake powers that the generals had grabbed from his office.

President Mohammed Morsi's shake-up of the military on Sunday took the nation by surprise, transforming his image overnight from a weak leader to a savvy politician who carefully timed his move against the military brass who stripped him of significant powers days before he took office June 30.

A posting on a Facebook page known to be close to the country's military said the changes amounted to the "natural" handing over of leadership to a younger generation.

Egypt's official news agency quoted an unnamed military official late Sunday as saying there has been no "negative reaction" from within the military. And a day after the orders, no unusual military movements were detected anywhere across the nation.

The United States, Egypt's main foreign backer of 30 years, said it was unperturbed by the changes. Egypt receives $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid.

"We had expected President Morsi at some point to coordinate changes in the military leadership to name a new team," U.S. Defense Department press secretary George Little said in Washington. "The United States and the Department of Defense in particular look forward to continuing the very close relationship with the SCAF [the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces]."

Morsi's moves could heighten fears in Egypt and abroad that the U.S.-educated Islamist leader and the Muslim Brotherhood, his fundamentalist group, may have accumulated too much power.

"With [the] military stripped of legislative authority and in [the] absence of parliament, [the] president holds imperial powers," Egypt's top reform leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account yesterday.