The ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has been charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar, reports say.

A prosecutor accused the former leader of handing the information to the Gulf state, whose relations with Egypt have been tense since mid-2013 when the then army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, deposed Morsi after mass protests against his rule. Sisi was elected as his successor in May 2014.

Qatar had supported Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, which was officially classified as a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian state in December 2013. Security sources said last month that Egypt was investigating Morsi in connection with documents they said were leaked to Qatar and the al-Jazeera news channel, which is funded by the Gulf state's ruling family, the House of Thani.