UNITED STATES
Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on horses and camels, fiercely attacked demonstrators in Cairo on Wednesday after the army told protesters to clear the streets.Anti-Mubarak protesters hurled stones back and said the attackers were police in plain clothes, a charge the Interior Ministry denied; the Egyptian government rejected international calls for the leader to end his 30-year-rule now.
This apparent rebuff along with the appearance of Mubarak supporters on Cairo's streets and their clashes with protesters -- after days of relatively calm demonstrations -- complicated U.S. calculations for an orderly transition of power.
Opposition figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate, called on the army to intervene to stop the violence in Tahrir Square, the worst in the nine-day uprising against Mubarak since protesters fought street battles last Friday.
But troops stood by and watched as the tumult raged.
There were reports of gunfire in the square and state television said one person was killed and more than 400 people injured in Wednesday's clashes.
Urging protesters to go home, the armed forces told them their demands had been heard, But some were determined to occupy the square until Mubarak quits.
Khalil, a man in his 60s holding a stick, blamed Mubarak supporters and undercover security men for the clashes.
"We will not leave," he told Reuters. "Everybody stay put."
The emergence of Mubarak loyalists, whether ordinary citizens or police, thrust a new dynamic into the momentous events in this most populous Arab nation of 80 million people.
The uprising broke out last week as public frustration with corruption, oppression and economic hardship under Mubarak boiled over. At least 140 people are estimated to have been killed so far.
The crisis has alarmed the United States and other Western governments who saw Mubarak as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region, and has raised the prospect of unrest spreading to other authoritarian Arab countries.
Mubarak went on television on Tuesday to say he would not stand in elections scheduled for September but this was not good enough for the protesters, who demanded he quit the country.
President Barack Obama telephoned the 82-year-old to say Washington wanted him to move faster on political transition.
But Mubarak dug his heels in on Wednesday. A Foreign Ministry statement rejected U.S. and European calls for the transition to start immediately and said they aimed to "incite the internal situation" in Egypt.
"This appears to be a clear rebuff to the Obama administration and to the international community's efforts to try to help manage a peaceful transition from Mubarak to a new, democratic Egypt," said Robert Danin, a former senior U.S. official now at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
The administration will want to see order restored without compromising the standing of the Egyptian army, which it supplies annually with about $1.3 billion in aid.
"If the army starts to use violence against demonstrators, it will lose its legitimacy as the remaining institution that is venerated by the Egyptian people," Danin said.
International backing for Mubarak, for three decades a stalwart of the West's Middle East policy, a key player in the Middle East peace process and defense against the spread of militant Islam, crumbled as he tried to ride out the crisis.
France, Germany and Britain also urged a speedy transition.
Some of the few words of encouragement for him have come from oil-giant Saudi Arabia, a country seen by many analysts as vulnerable to a similar outbreak of discontent.
Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, is also watching the situation in its western neighbor nervously, weighing the possibility that anti-Israeli Islamists might gain a share of power.
FIGHTING IN THE SQUARE
Troops made no attempt to intervene as opposing factions clashed in the vast, central Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the focus of the protests.
Earlier, pro-Mubarak youths were bussed into various districts of the capital and the carnival-atmosphere of the last 48 hours turned menacing.
Reuters correspondents saw dozens injured and people fled in panic. One of the riders who wielded whips and sticks as they charged into the crowd was dragged from his horse and beaten.
Petrol bombs landed in the gardens of the Egyptian Museum, an Egyptologist said.
"So far the museum is safe, but we don't know what's going to happen, because the Mubarak supporters are out of control," the Egyptologist, who declined to be identified, added.
Mustafa Naggar, an organizer of the anti-Mubarak protest in the square, also accused pro-Mubarak "thugs" of throwing the petrol bombs. "We call on the army to immediately intervene," he said, adding one petrol bomb hit a tank guarding the museum.
An opposition coalition, which includes Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood, responded to the army warning to leave Tahrir Square by calling for more protests.
It said it would only negotiate with Vice President Omar Suleiman, a former intelligence chief appointed by Mubarak at the weekend, once Mubarak stepped down.
At the weekend, Mubarak reshuffled his cabinet and promised reform but it was not enough for protesters.
One million people took to the streets of Egyptian cities on Tuesday calling for him to quit.
YEMEN, JORDAN FEEL THE HEAT
Many analysts see the army as trying to ensure a transition of power that would allow it to retain much of its influence.
Hani Sabra, a Eurasia Group analyst, said Mubarak's announcement he would not stand in the election in September marked the start of a long, messy negotiation process between the government and the opposition.
"In the medium term, these negotiations will likely produce an Egypt best described as a hybrid democracy, combining a strong military with a more pluralistic electoral system."
The uprising was inspired in part by a popular revolt in Tunisia last month which overthrew long-ruling President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. The mood is spreading across the region.
King Abdullah of Jordan replaced his prime minister on Tuesday after protests there. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda, said on Wednesday he would not seek to extend his presidency, a move that would end his three-decade rule in 2013.
Oil prices fell back from 28-month highs, but North Sea Brent crude was still more than $101 a barrel on worries that unrest in Egypt could trigger yet more political upheaval across the Middle East and North Africa.
But with Mubarak pledging to go, foreign investors have begun to show renewed interest in Egyptian bonds and stocks and the cost of insuring Egyptian debt against default fell.
(Reuters Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond, Patrick Werr, Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Alexander Dziadosz, Yasmine Saleh, and Alison Williams in Cairo; Writing by Angus MacSwan and Peter Millership; editing by Ralph Boulton)
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