Caught between a mob which insists on his ouster and US appeals for "an orderly transition," Mubarak's efforts to firm up his shaky regime carry no guarantee of success, analysts said.

Mubarak appointed his intelligence chief as his first-ever vice president and promoted a general to prime minister on Saturday.

And the military has been ordered out to reinforce Egypt's overstretched police force which has failed to quash a nationwide revolt that has cost more than 100 lives in less than a week.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an "orderly transition," saying Mubarak had not made enough effort to democratise the country he has led for three decades.

"We are urging the Mubarak government, which is still in power, we are urging the military, which is a very respected institution in Egypt, to do what is necessary to facilitate ... (an) orderly transition," she told ABC News.

In his overtures to the armed forces, Mubarak, himself a former military man who rose to the top, visited a military operations installation on Saturday to monitor the "re-establishment of control," according to state-run television.

However, the naming of intelligence chief General Omar Suleiman to the vice presidency and the civil aviation minister, General Ahmed Shafik, as prime minister have failed to calm anger on the streets.

"It is not Suleiman's and Shafik's personalities that are the problem so much as the way in which they were appointed," said Amr el-Shobaki, a political analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

"In typical Mubarak fashion, the people were not consulted."

With the unprecedented demonstrations "we are witnessing a return of the Egyptian people. We must talk about reforms and address the concerns of young people, who have paid a heavy price" in the revolt, he said.

Behind this apparent show of strength, the appointments could also reflect weakness and leave the door open to a successor. In his 30-year rule, Mubarak has always refused to appoint a vice president for fear of being overshadowed.

"Mubarak is stuck in a corner. The only one he can count on is the military," said Rabab al-Madhi of the American University of Cairo. Saturday's appointments aimed to "renew the military's allegiance" to the president.

Although Suleiman is a longtime ally of Mubarak, he has often been considered a possible successor to the 82-year-old president.

A cable from the US embassy to Egypt, dated 2007 and disclosed on Wikileaks, shows that Washington saw Suleiman as a possible "transitional figure" despite his "rock solid" support for Mubarak.

Suleiman "could be attractive to the ruling apparatus and the public at large as a reliable figure unlikely to harbour ambitions for another multi-decade presidency," the cable reads.

earlier related report
Mubarak meets military as revolt rages into sixth day
Cairo (AFP) Jan 30, 2011 - President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday met with army brass seen as holding the key to his future as warplanes in an apparent show of force flew over vast crowds of anti-government protesters in central Cairo.

Top dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, meanwhile, gathered support from leading opposition groups including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood to start talks with Mubarak on ways to defuse Egypt's biggest uprising in three decades.

And as the popular revolt against Mubarak's autocratic rule raged into a sixth day, a wave of jail breaks and increasing lawlessness sent expatriates and tourists rushing to Cairo airport in a scramble for flights out.

A number of foreign governments said they would evacuate their nationals, while the United States authorised the departure of embassy families.

State television said the embattled Mubarak Sunday visited Egypt's central military command where he met with his newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, the military intelligence chief; as well as with outgoing defence minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi and chief of staff Sami Anan.

Mubarak, a former air force chief, appeared to be seeking the army support as he faces down the revolt which those driving it say will continue until he steps down.

The United States, a key ally of Egypt, called Sunday on Mubarak to do more to defuse the crisis but stopped short of saying he should quit.

As he was meeting the army chiefs, two Egyptian fighter jets flew repeat low-altitude sorties over Cairo, deafening the protest-hit city, as thousands of protesters crowded into the central Tahrir square demanded he step down.

"Mubarak, go to Saudi Arabia," the crowd shouted, encouraging the leader in power for 30 years to follow deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile.

A banner in English read: "USA, why do you support the tyrant and not the people."

A group of women shouted: "1, 2, where's the people's money?"

After darkness had fallen and a largely ignored 4:00 pm curfew had kicked in, ElBaradei made his way Tahrir square, cheered by the vast crowd.

"The people want to topple the president," they as the Nobel laureate arrived. "We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for the nation," the angry crowd shouted.

The National Coalition for Change, which groups several opposition movements including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, on Sunday charged ElBaradei with negotiating with Mubarak's embattled regime.

With fears of insecurity rising and a death toll of at least 125, thousands of convicts broke out prisons across Egypt overnight after they overwhelmed guards or after prison personnel fled their posts.

An AFP correspondent saw 14 bodies in a mosque near Cairo's Abu Zaabal prison, which a resident said were of two police and the rest convicts.

Shots rang out in the neighbourhood and a resident said that all the prisoners had escaped and many had been killed.

"There are many, many more bodies," said a resident who asked not to be named.

Troops set up checkpoints on roads to riot-hit prisons, stopping and searching cars for escaped convicts.

Among those who escaped were senior members of Egypt's main opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as members of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, some of whom made it back to the Gaza Strip via smuggling tunnels.

With rampant pillaging in more than five days of deadly protests, many Egyptians believe that the police have deliberately released prisoners in order to spread chaos and emphasise the need for the security forces.

"The government wants the people to think that Mubarak is the only option faced with the chaos," said young demonstrator Sameh Kamal.

Groups of club-carrying vigilantes have deployed on Cairo's streets to protect from looters amid growing insecurity as the Arab world's most populous nation faced an uncertain future.

Youths handed over to the army those they suspected of looting, with the police who had been fighting running battles with stone-throwing protesters in the first days of the demonstrations hardly visible.

Many petrol stations are now running out of fuel, motorists said, and many bank cash machines have either been looted or are no longer working. Egyptian banks and the stock exchange have been ordered closed on Sunday.

Embattled Mubarak on Saturday named Suleiman as his first-ever vice president and also a new premier, Ahmed Shafiq, but protesters dismissed the moves as too little, too late.

Both men are stalwarts of Egypt's all-powerful military establishment.

Suleiman, 75, has spearheaded years of Egyptian efforts to clinch an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and tried so far in vain to mediate an inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

Shafiq, 69, is respected by the Egyptian elite, even among the opposition, and has often been mooted as a potential successor to Mubarak.

However protesters in Cairo on Sunday made it clear they believed the new appointees were mere Mubarak loyalists.

"Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, Ahmed Shafiq must go," they yelled. "The regime has been in power for 30 years, that is enough."

In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Sunday for an "orderly transition" in Egypt but stopped short of demanding he step down.

Asked if Mubarak had taken sufficient steps to defuse Egypt's worst crisis in decades by appointing a vice president and naming a new premier, Clinton told ABC: "Of course not."

"That is the beginning, the bare beginning of what needs to happen, which is a process that leads to the kind of concrete steps to achieve democratic and economic reform that we've been urging."

The Obama administration, she added, has not discussed cutting off aid to Egypt, a key Arab ally. US military aid to Egypt amounts to $1.3 billion a year, and the total American aid bill to the country averages close to $2 billion annually.

In other developments on Sunday:

-- Egypt's outgoing information minister Anas al-Fikki ordered the closure of Al Jazeera's operations in Egypt after the pan-Arab satellite channel gave blanket coverage to the anti-government riots.

-- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem that Israel is carefully watching developments in Egypt and its efforts are focused on maintaining the "stability and security" of the region.

-- The Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt was closed, a Palestinian official told AFP, adding that Egyptian officials had left the border following the spiralling political unrest.

-- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for "restraint, non-violence and respect for fundamental rights" in Egypt, addressing the African Union summit that opened in Addis Ababa.

-- Stock markets in several Gulf countries, where many leading firms have interests in Egypt, slumped Sunday, while the bourse in Cairo did not even open.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News