Egyptian authorities impounded a massive cargo vessel that blocked the Suez Canal last month amid a financial dispute with its owner, the canal chief and a judicial official said Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie said the hulking Ever Given would not be allowed to leave the country until a compensation amount is settled on with the vessel's Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd.

"The vessel is now officially impounded," he told Egypt's state-run television late Monday. "They do not want to pay anything."

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There was no immediate comment from the vessel's owner.

Rabei did not say how much money the canal authority was seeking. However, a judicial official said it demanded at least US$900 million ($1.178 billion). The state-run Ahram daily also reported the US$900 million figure.

That amount takes into account the salvage operation, costs of stalled canal traffic and lost transit fees for the week that the Ever Given blocked the canal.

The official said the order to impound the vessel was issued Monday by a court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, and that the vessel's crew has been informed Tuesday.

He said prosecutors in Ismailia also opened a separate investigation into what led the Ever Given to run aground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief media.

Rabie said negotiations were still ongoing to reach a settlement on compensation.

He warned last week in an interview with The Associated Press that bringing the case before a court would be more harmful to the vessel's owner than settling with the canal's management.

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Litigation could be complex, since the vessel is owned by a Japanese firm, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, and flagged in Panama.

The Panama-flagged ship that carries some US$3.5 billion ($4.58 billion) in cargo between Asia and Europe ran aground March 23 in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Asian Sinai Peninsula.

The vessel had crashed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6km north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.

On March 29, salvage teams freed the Ever Given, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world's most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. The vessel has since idled in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it previously blocked the canal.

The unprecedented six-day shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, added to strain on the shipping industry already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.

Rabie, the canal chief, told state-run television there was no wrongdoing by the canal authority. He declined to discuss possible causes, including the ship's speed and the high winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm.

When asked whether the ship's owner was at fault, he said: "Of course, yes."

Rabie said the conclusion of the authority's investigation was expected Thursday.

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US President Joe Biden plans to announce Tuesday a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to three people familiar with the plans.

The withdrawal extends the US troop presence past a May 1 deadline set by the Trump administration in an agreement with the Taliban but only by a matter of months.

Biden had been weighing the decision for months with his advisers and signalled he did not believe US troops should remain in the country long past the deadline.

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Officials were expected to explain the decision further later on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).

The Washington Post was first to report the news.

US officials say there are about 2500 troops in Afghanistan.

It's not immediately clear what will happen to several hundred US special operations forces there that often work for the CIA on counter-terrorism missions.

Those troops are not publicly acknowledged and are not part of the formal calculation of 2500 troops in the country.

Decision would end longest war in American history

Mr Biden's new September 11 deadline to withdraw US troops would mark a symbolic end to the longest war in American history.

It would come exactly 20 years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sparked the initial US invasion of Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan troop withdrawal is the first major decision of Mr Biden's presidency regarding US troops abroad, and Biden wrestled with what to do for months leading up to the May 1 deadline set by his predecessor.

Last month, he signalled he was unlikely to meet the May 1 deadline but said at his first press conference as president that he did not envision US troops remaining in Afghanistan by next year.

"We are not staying for a long time. We will leave," Mr Biden said.

"The question is when we leave."

He added, "it's going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline just in terms of tactical reasons."

Secretary of State Tony Blinken laid the groundwork for Mr Biden to make an announcement about the withdrawal in a phone call with President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the phone call.

Blinken did not divulge precise details about the withdrawal but explained that Mr Biden would be calling Mr Ghani on Thursday. Mr Blinken left the Afghan president with the understanding that his US counterpart had decided on withdrawing US troops over the course of the next few months.

Biden administration officials have also been sending signals to Afghan officials at the working level that this was the direction they were headed in, one source explained.

The Biden administration is also making a series of phone calls to allies in the region this afternoon to detail their planned strategy, two diplomatic sources told CNN.

Mr Ghani tweeted on Tuesday that he had spoken to Blinken about planned US-backed peace talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban set for this week and the upcoming phone call Biden.

"Today I spoke with Secretary @ABlinken. We discussed the ongoing peace process, the upcoming peace talks in Turkey, and also spoke about the upcoming phone call with President @JoeBiden", he said.

https://twitter.com/ashrafghani/status/1381926182996865030

Decision comes with risks

The decision to set a deadline for withdrawal comes with risks, as senior military commanders have advocated keeping US troops in the country and have argued a premature withdrawal could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government.

Recent attacks against US forces in Afghanistan have also fuelled concerns. CNN reported last week that the Taliban twice targeted one of the most heavily guarded bases in the country in March and that US military personnel working for the CIA were at the installation when it came under fire.

The US wants to keep an intelligence presence in Afghanistan, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The annual US intelligence community's assessment released on Tuesday said prospects for a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government "remain low during the next year."

"The Taliban is likely to make gains on the battlefield, and the Afghan Government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support," the assessment says.