Cairo - Egypt's revenues from the Suez Canal rose to a record high of 5.16 billion US dollars in the fiscal year 2007/2008 from four billion dollars last year, the canal head said Thursday.

The rise in the canal revenues is considered the highest in its history, Suez Canal chairman Ahmed Ali Fadil was reported as saying by the state MENA news agency.

The canal, which had been opened to world navigation in 1869, is a major foreign currency earner for Egypt. (dpa)