A recently-issued 1967 document by the American Central Intelligence Agency titled "Egypt: Sadat's Domestic Position" suggests that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood received arms and financial support from the ex-Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

The report was released along with more than 250 previously classified CIA documents written between January 1967 and March 1979 during Anwar Sadat's presidency in Egypt.

The document suggests that the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in military and government institutions grew considerably due to the financial and arms support of Gaddafi, who supported the opposition's aims to "exploit the shortcomings of Sadat's regime."

The report also argues that Gaddafi sought to benefit from Egypt's isolation in the Arab world following its involvement in peace talks with Israel to play a leadership role in the region. In the report, the CIA describes Libya' strongman as the "avowed enemy of Sadat."

Attempting to "take up Nasser's pan-Arabic mantle," the CIA papers note that Gaddafi worked to facilitate regional alliances with others who rejected Sadat's reversal of his predecessor Gamal Abdel Nasser's Arab nationalist foreign policy orientation.

However, the papers reveal that the CIA expected Sadat would be capable of containing Nasserists in Egypt because they lacked "cohesive unity and leadership," despite their alliances with Libyan and Soviet "provocateurs."

The papers portray Egyptian society as conservative with powerful rightist elements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, that Nasser had been unable to suppress.

But the weakness of Sadat's political opponents, who lacked the "broad appeal he enjoys," and the commitment of Egyptian security forces to control dissidence led the CIA reports to conclude that Sadat's fall was unlikely.