The Obama administration is examining requests from Egypt’s new government to freeze the assets of top aides to ousted President Hosni Mubarak, a senior U.S. official said Monday.

The official told reporters at the State Department that the administration had received requests regarding assets held by some senior officials in Mubarak’s regime, but have not received the same request to freeze assets held by the former president.

The official said the Treasury Department is looking at the requests and will make a decision within days. The official did not identify the individuals whose U.S. assets were being studied and spoke on condition of anonymity because the U.S. has not yet decided what to do.

Egypt’s military rulers dissolved parliament on Sunday, suspending the constitution and promising elections in moves cautiously welcomed by pro-democracy protesters.

Mubarak stepped down Friday after weeks of protests by the Egyptian people.

The pro-democracy protests forced Mubarak to give up his power to the military, ending decades of authoritarian rule. Upon hearing the news, protestors celebrated in the streets chanting “Hold your heads high, you’re Egyptian.”

Journalism professor Orayb Najjar said she was happy with the protests in Egypt.

“I was ecstatic that the Egyptian people asked for change,” Najjar said. “The Egyptian people deserve better than the government that they had.”

Najjar said this will affect the Middle East for the better.

“With this uprising, Egypt will once again regain its role as the leader of the Arab world. Many other Arab rulers are now watching and learning that they will not be able to oppress their own people much longer,” Najjar said. “I expect many governments to loosen up or else face what Mubarak is now facing.”

The Egyptian military said they would announce the next steps soon and those steps could include creations of a transitional government and dissolving of the parliament.

John Kissane, senior political science major, said he is happy Mubarak has finally stepped down.

“Hopefully Egypt will have a new democratic government that Egyptians can vote for their leaders,” Kissane said.

Kissane also said he believes this will bring about bigger change in the Middle East.

“This new wave of protesting of dictator governments in the Middle East is very important for the democratic process,” Kissane said. “First it was Tunisia, now Egypt, and there’s always the possibility of Iran; that would be a huge win for America if the people protested in Iran and the government became a democracy.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.