Saied said the funds contradicted the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding he signed with Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in mid-July.

EU sources said Saied had been expecting more money in the first tranche.

The Memorandum of Understanding features five pillars - macro-economic stability, trade and investment, green energy transition, people-to people contacts, and migration - and includes financial assistance.

Meloni has said she considered it a “model” for relations between the bloc and north African countries.

Tunisia is in the midst of severe financial crisis and the unstable situation has been a major factor in a huge increase in the number of migrants and refugees arriving in Italy by sea this year.

Saied said Monday evening that Tunis accepted cooperation with the EU but not charity.

“Tunisia, which accepts cooperation, does not accept either charity of alms,” he said, adding that “our country and our people do not want pity, but demand respect”.

“Tunisia rejects what was announced by the EU in the last few days, not for the amount in question, because all the wealth in the world is not worth a gramme of our sovereignty, but because the proposal contradicts the memorandum of understanding signed in Tunis in the spirit that prevailed at the Rome conference last July.”

Meloni responded to Saied’s rejection of the first tranche of EU funding by saying that she agreed with him on the need to change the approach to African countries.

“I think that President Saied, certainly in an assertive tone, was addressing public opinion,” she said, commenting on his rejection of the aid as “charity and alms”.

“After that he is not saying anything very different from what Italy is also saying, which is that the relationship with African countries must change because we have had a paternalistic approach with these countries, a bit as if we felt superior, which is not the right way to deal with these matters.

“With these nations we must work with respect, as equals, with an approach that is that of a strategic partnership.”

The EU said Saied rejected the aid because he had been expecting a much bigger sum.

ANSA