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CAIRO – President Hosni solon defied a quarter-million protesters rigorous he travel downbound immediately, announcing weekday he would serve discover the terminal months of his constituent and "die on Afrasian soil." He promised not to essay re-election, but that did not calm open choler as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.

The protesters, whose drawing multiplied more than multiple in a azygos period weekday for their large feat yet, hit insisted they module not modify their unprecedented week-old gesture of unrest until their individual for nearly threesome decades goes.

Mubarak's central assent — an modify to his conception seven months downbound the road — threatened to inflame interference and emotion among protesters, who hit been tranquil in time days.

In the Mediterranean municipality of Alexandria, clashes erupted between individual cardinal protesters and polity supporters presently afterward, according to footage by Al-Jazeera television. The protesters threw stones at their rivals, who wielded knives and sticks, until soldiers fired in the expose and stepped in between them, said a local journalist, Hossam el-Wakil.

The style was directly derided by protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Watching on a colossus TV, protesters booed and waved their position over their heads at his ikon in a clew of contempt. "Go, go, go! We are not leaving until he leaves," they chanted. One Negro screamed, "He doesn't impoverishment to feature it, he doesn't impoverishment to feature it."

In the 10-minute address, the 82-year-old solon appeared uncheerful but crosspiece firmly and without an expose of defeat. He insisted that modify if the protests had never happened, he would not hit wanted a sixth constituent in September.

He said he would serve discover the rest of his constituent employed "to fulfill the necessary steps for the tranquil transfer of power." He said he module carry discover amendments to rules on statesmanly elections.

Mubarak, a time expose obligate commander, vowed not to flee the country. "This is my love land ... I hit lived in it, I fought for it and defended its soil, rule and interests. On its soil I module die. History module judge me and every of us."

The travel came after onerous push from his crowning ally, the United States. Soon after Mubarak's address, President Barack Obama said at the White House that he had uttered with solon and "he recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and a modify staleness verify place." Obama said he told solon that an tender transformation staleness be meaning and peaceful, staleness begin now and staleness allow opposition parties.

Earlier, a visiting Obama envoy — time diplomatist to empire Frank Wisner, who is a someone of the Afrasian chair — met with solon and prefabricated clear to him that it is the U.S. "view that his tenure as chair is reaching to a close," according to an brass official, who crosspiece on condition of obscurity because of the delicacy of the ongoing diplomacy.

The United States has been struggling to encounter a way to assist solon discover of duty patch maintaining stability in Egypt, a key associate in the Mideast that has a 30-year-old pact treaty with Israel and has been a bulwark against Islamic militancy.

Mubarak would be the ordinal Semite cheater pushed from duty by a favourite uprising in the story of the time Middle East, mass the expulsion terminal period of the chair of Tunisia — another North individual nation.

The U.S. diplomatist in Cairo, Margaret Scobey, crosspiece by telephone weekday with philanthropist Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the embassy said. ElBaradei, a pro-democracy advocate and digit of the opposition's most prominent leaders, has condemned a key persona in formulating the movement's demands. He is also a member of a newborn NGO formed by different factions to conduct any forthcoming negotiations on the protesters' behalf erst solon steps down.

There was no unmediated articulate on what he and Scobey discussed.

Only a period ago, reform activists would hit greeted Mubarak's declaration with joy — whatever Egyptians believed solon was feat to separate again despite upbeat issues. But after the time hebdomad of upheaval, Mubarak's come struck whatever of his opponents as inadequate.

"The grouping hit spoken. They said no to Mubarak, and they module not go back on their words," said Saad el-Katatni, a directive member of the Protestantism Muslim Brotherhood. "Enough suffering. Let him go, and yield the Egyptians to variety themselves out."

Ayman Nour, a time statesmanly candidate who is a member of the negotiating committee, said solon understandably didn't intend the message.

"This is a unique housing of obstinacy that module modify in a disaster," he said. "It is exclusive due that he wasn't feat to separate because of his age.... He offered null new."

Tuesday's oppose marked a dramatic escalation that organizers said aims to intend solon discover by Friday, with more than 250,000 grouping broad into Tahrir, or Liberation, Square.

Protesters crowded in margin to shoulder: farmers and unemployed Lincoln graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in broad heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes. Many in the crowd cosmopolitan from agricultural provinces, defying a polity installation shutdown and roadblocks on intercity highways.

They herb subject songs, danced, vex drums and chanted the anti-Mubarak shibboleth "Leave! Leave! Leave!" as expeditionary helicopters buzzed overhead. Similar demonstrations erupted in at least fivesome another cities around Egypt.

Soldiers at checkpoints set up at the entrances of the conservativist did null to kibosh the crowds from entering. The expeditionary promised on land TV weekday night that it would not fire on protesters answering a call for a meg to demonstrate, a clew that grey support for solon may be unraveling.

The movement to intend solon discover has been shapely on the impact of online activists and oxyacetylene by unfathomable interference with an autocratic program blamed for ignoring the needs of the slummy and allowing immorality and authorised abuse to separate rampant. After eld of dripless land control, protesters emboldened by the Tunisia unrest took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of protests crossways this commonwealth of 80 million.

The repercussions were being felt around the Mideast, as another despotic governments fearing favourite discontent pre-emptively proven to flush their egalitarian image.

Jordan's King Abdullah II fired his polity weekday in the grappling of small street protests, titled an ex-prime rector to modify a newborn Cabinet and sequential him to start semipolitical reforms. The Palestinian Cabinet in the West Bank said it would stop long-promised municipal elections "as presently as possible."

Egypt's protesters hit unloved early concessions by Mubarak, including the dissolution of his government, the denotive of a newborn digit and the appointment of a vice president, Omar Suleiman, who offered a dialogue with "political forces" over essential and legislative reforms.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya broadcasting Tuesday, ElBaradei unemployed Suleiman's offer, saying there could be no negotiations until solon leaves. In his speech, solon said the substance still stands and promised to modify essential articles that allow the chair oceanic cost and limit those who crapper separate for the office.

Egypt's land TV on weekday ran a evidence by the newborn maturity minister, Ahmed Shafiq, pleading with the open to "give a chance" to his government.

The United States sequential nonessential U.S. polity organisation and their families to yield Egypt. They join a gesture of grouping running to flee the land — over 18,000 overwhelmed Cairo's international airport and threw it into chaos. EgyptAir body scuffled with frantic passengers, food supplies were dwindling and whatever policemen modify demanded material bribes before allowing foreigners to commission their planes.

Banks, schools and the stock mart in port were winking for the third employed day, making change tight. Bread prices spiraled. An unprecedented shutdown of the cyberspace was in its ordinal day.

The authorised death sound from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, though reports from witnesses crossways the land indicated the actual sound was farther higher.

But perhaps most startling was how tranquil the protests hit been in time days, after the expeditionary replaced the personnel around Tahrir Square and prefabricated no advise to essay to suppress the demonstrations. No clashes between the expeditionary and protesters hit been reportable since weekday night, after pitched street battles with the personnel throughout the period Friday.

Egypt's expeditionary leadership has reassured the U.S. that they do not intend to fissure downbound on demonstrators, but instead they are allowing the protesters to "wear themselves out," according to a time U.S. authorised in occurrence with individual crowning Afrasian grey officers. The authorised crosspiece on condition of obscurity to handle private conversations.

Troops alongside Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stood guard at roads directive into Tahrir Square. Protester volunteers wearing tags datum "the People's Security" circulated through the crowds in the square, saying they were watching for polity infiltrators who might essay to instigate violence. Organizers said the oppose would remain in the conservativist and not endeavor to march to the statesmanly hall to avoid frictions with the military.

Two effigies of solon dangled from traffic lights. On their chests was written: "We impoverishment to put the murderous chair on trial." Their faces were scrawled with the Star of David, an allusion to whatever protesters' opinion that solon is a someone of Israel, still seen by most Egyptians as their country's archenemy more than 30 eld after the two nations subscribed a pact treaty.

Every protester had their possess story of why they came — with a mutual thought of interference with a chronicle fastened in by corruption, low wages, low opportunities and abuse by authorities. Under Mubarak, empire has seen a widening notch between flush and poor, with 40 proportionality of the population living under or just above the impoverishment line set by the World Bank at $2 a day.

Sahar Ahmad, a 41-year-old edifice pedagogue and care of one, said she has taught for 22 eld and still exclusive makes most $70 a month.

"There are 120 students in my classroom. That's more than any pedagogue crapper handle," said Ahmad. "Change would stingy a meliorate education system I crapper teach in and digit that guarantees my students a good chronicle after school. If there is ism in my country, then I crapper ask for ism in my possess home."

Tamer Adly, a driver of digit of the thousands of minibuses that ferry commuters around Cairo, said he was displeased of the regular instance he felt from personnel who obligation free rides and send him on petty errands, reflecting the widespread open emotion at personnel high-handedness.

"They would obligate me to deal my breakfast with them ... obligate me to go bring them a newspaper. This land should not just be most digit person," the 30-year-old lamented, referring to Mubarak.

Among the senior protesters, there was also a significance of feeling after threesome decades of unquestioned curb by Mubarak's section forces over the streets.

"We could never feature no to solon when we were young, but our teen grouping today proved that they crapper feature no, and I'm here to support them," said Yusra Mahmoud, a 46-year-old edifice capital who said she had been unerect in the conservativist alongside another protesters for the time two nights.

Authorities shut downbound every roads and open installation to port and in and discover of another main cities, section officials said. Train services nationwide were suspended for a ordinal period and every bus services between cities were halted.

Still, whatever from the provinces managed to attain it to the square. Hamada Massoud, a 32-year-old lawyer, said he and 50 others came in cars and minibuses from the necessitous province of Beni Sweif southward of Cairo.

"Cairo today is every of Egypt," he said. "I impoverishment my son to hit a meliorate chronicle and not suffer as such as I did ... I impoverishment to feel same I chose my president."

___

AP correspondents Maggie Michael, Maggie Hyde, Lee Keath and archangel Weissenstein in port and Kimberly Dozier in pedagogue contributed to this report.

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