Mubarak to address nation amid signs he is to quit

CAIRO: Embattled President Hosni Mubarak appeared to be on the brink of stepping down Thursday as thousands of anti-regime protesters massed excitedly in Cairo's central Tahrir Square amid rumours he would go.

State television said Mubarak would address the nation later Thursday and the military announced it would respond to the "legitimate" demands of the people in a statement seen as indicating it was ready to fill the vacuum.

Egyptian television interrupted all programming to present footage of a panel of senior military officers, one of whom read out a statement described as "communique number one" of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

"In support of the legitimate demands of the people," the army "will continue meeting... to examine measures to be taken to protect the nation and its gains and the ambitions of the great Egyptian people," it said.

It was not clear if the announcement -- redolent of the language of a coup -- would end Mubarak's 30-year-reign, the demand of hundreds of thousands of people who have filled the country's streets in the two-week-old uprising.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq insisted, however, that no final decision had been taken and that the armed forces council was reporting to Mubarak.

State television later said Mubarak was holding talks now with Vice President Omar Suleiman at the presidency in Heliopolis, the district where the president has his main residence.

As rumours swirled that there a military coup was under way in Egypt, CIA director Leon Panetta said the beleaguered Mubarak would likely hand over power to Suleiman.

A wave of anticipation swept through Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the unprecedented wave of pro-democracy protests, as rumours spread among the hundreds of thousands of joyful, flag-waving protesters massed there.

A military cordon deployed around the square to contain the protest, backed by a squadron of tanks, had not moved and there was no sign of any crackdown, as joyful crowds chanted: "The army and the people are one hand!"

On the bridge over the River Nile carloads of revellers converged on the square, waving flags and honking their horns.

Pro-democracy cyber activist Wael Ghonim, a hero to the anti-regime movement after he was jailed and held blindfolded for 12 days for helping to organise the first protest last month, warned his followers to be cautious.

"Guys, don't do much speculation for now, just wait and see," he posted on his popular Twitter feed. "Long live Egypt!"

But most people seemed convinced that something was in the air as they waited for Mubarak's address to the nation.

Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of Egyptian workers striking nationwide had swelled the protesters' ranks on the eve of Friday's Muslim day of prayers, when protest groups had urged millions to turn out in what could be the biggest show of defiance yet.

A security official confirmed union reports that thousands of employees in the public sector were staging strikes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the canal city of Suez and elsewhere on the north coast and the Red Sea.

Union leader Kamal Abbas said that since nationwide rallies erupted on January 25 to demand an end to Mubarak's rule, "we have started to hear of the billions of dollars that officials hold in personal accounts.

"So many employees feel it is time to stand up and demand their rights."

Workers at Egypt's largest factory -- the Misr Spinning and Weaving textile plant, which employs 24,000 people in the Nile Delta -- padlocked the buildings and massed in front of the administrative offices.

"We are striking first of all to show solidarity with the protesters in Tahrir Square," one strike organiser, Faisal Naousha, told AFP. "We also want court rulings lifting the minimum wage to be implemented."

In Cairo, some 3,000 health workers marched to join the anti-regime crowds that have blockaded parliament and occupied Tahrir Square.

Around 100 lawyers in suits and ties and "revolutionary" youth marched to the Abdeen presidential palace near Tahrir but were stopped by the army, at which point they knelt in afternoon prayers at a crowded intersection.

"This is a legitimate revolution... It is our right to bring down this corrupt regime," Mohammed Mursi, one of the lawyers, said.

Hundreds of protesters from a run-down slum in the canal city of Port Said torched the police headquarters and burned police cars before storming the province headquarters for the second time in two days, witnesses said.