Egypt's ruling party says ready for talks but offers no concessions

Cairo/Sana'a: Egypt's ruling party said yesterday it was ready for a dialogue with the public but offered no concessions to address demands for a solution to rampant poverty and political change heard in the country's largest anti-government protests in years.

At the same time, the movement was getting a boost likely to energise the demonstrations. Mohammad Al Baradei, a Nobel peace laureate and the country's top pro-democracy advocate, was returning to the country and declared he was ready to lead the protests. The country's largest opposition — the Muslim Brotherhood — earlier threw its support behind the demonstrations. Al Baradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said he expected big demonstrations across Egypt today, and that it was time for President Hosni Mubarak to go.

Al Baradei left Vienna for Cairo yesterday to join a growing wave of protests against the government. However, he told Reuters he would not lead the street rallies, but that his role was "to manage the change politically".

Demonstrations

Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia continued to witness massive anti-government protests yesterday. Opposition groups have urged Egyptians to take to the streets today. "We urge all Egyptians to protest after the Friday prayers to denounce the police's crackdown on peaceful demonstrations and to condemn rife poverty, unemployment and corruption" Mustafa Hamdi, a member of the April 6 movement, told Gulf News.

Meanwhile, security forces shot dead a protester in the north of Egypt's Sinai region after four people were killed during Wednesday's riots. Protesters also clashed with police in Suez, some 120km northeast of Cairo. Similar clashes were reported in the city of Ismailia.

The events sent jitters through Egypt's stock exchange yesterday, which suspended trading temporarily after a drop of 6.2 per cent in the benchmark EGX 30 index, a day after it fell six per cent.

Meanwhile, the ruling National Democratic Party yesterday held an emergency meeting on the protests, attended by Mubarak's younger son, Jamal.

In Yemen, thousands gathered in Sana'a demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. "We are here to say enough. The president should go," opposition politician Mohammad Al Sabri shouted.

Tunisian exile to return

In Tunis yesterday, protests continued, demanding for the makeshift coalition government be purged of Bin Ali's allies. Protesters broke through police barricades outside the prime minister's office.

Meanwhile, the leader of Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahdha, Rached Gannouchi, will return home on Sunday after more than 20 years in exile, the party's spokesman said.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that members of Tunisia's ousted regime were not welcome in Canada.