Middle-Income Nations to Get Half of U.S. Aid Money for ’87

The U.S. Agency for International Development, announcing the allocation of its $5.7-billion budget for the current fiscal year, on Tuesday earmarked nearly half the money to nine largely middle-income nations.

Israel, Egypt and seven other countries that give American forces access to military bases will receive $2.8 billion, with a further $2.5 billion being divided among 70 impoverished countries, AID documents show. Most of the remaining $400 million will cover administrative costs.

Requests Cut Sharply

The AID budget for fiscal 1987, which began Oct. 1, was about the same as the appropriation for the previous year. Both years reflected sharp cuts--9.3% this year--imposed by Congress on the State Department’s original request.

The biggest recipients by far were Israel, which was accorded a lump-sum payment of $1.2 billion, and Egypt, which received aid totaling $815 million. In addition, Israel and Egypt were among the top recipients of a separate $5-billion military aid program.

In a related development, State Department spokesman Phyllis Oakley announced Tuesday that the United States is prepared to reschedule Egypt’s debt for weapons bought on credit in previous years. However, she declined to provide specific numbers on the debt relief because some of the details have not yet been worked out.

Slight Increase

The combined $2.02-billion Israeli-Egyptian total was a small increase over last year’s total of $1.93 billion.

For nations allowing the United States military access--the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Pakistan and Oman--the total allocation was $780.9 million, up from $757.7 million. These nations, along with two other base-rights countries, Greece and South Korea, also are major recipients of the separate military aid budget.