Qatar has asked seven Egyptian leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to leave within one week.

Qatar has asked seven Egyptian leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to leave within one week, sources inside the movement in Egypt have said.

Muslim Brotherhood figures asked to leave include Mahmoud Hussein, Amr Darrag, Hamza Zoubaa, Wagdi Ghoneim, Gamal Abdel-Sattar, Essam Telima and Ashraf Badr, one of the sources, who preferred to remain anonymous, told media outlets.

He said the decision had come as a surprise to the Brotherhood, noting that additional figures from the group – from which ousted president Mohammad Mursi hails – could be asked to leave the Gulf state in the days ahead.

Darrag, a member of the executive office of the dissolved Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said he appreciated the role played by Qatar in past months.

"We value the role played by Qatar in supporting the Egyptian people," Darrag said in a statement.

"We understand the Qatari position and cooperate with its request for a number of leaders of the movement to leave," he added in the statement.

A large number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, members and affiliates left Egypt for Qatar following Mursi's ouster by the army last year.

The issue had soured relations between the Gulf state and Egypt, which had repeatedly asked the Qatari government to deport figures associated with Egypt's Brotherhood.