Egypt Islamists reject poll plan

CAIRO

Egypt's army-installed interim leader set out plans on Tuesday for elections by early next year, which were immediately rejected by the the ousted president's Muslim Brotherhood, drawing a stern warning from the military.

The Brotherhood, which has refused to accept the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, slammed the transition blueprint as an attempt to salvage last week's coup which would do nothing to end an increasingly bloody conflict.

The army warned it would brook no disruption to what it acknowledged would be a "difficult" transition.

The blueprint unveiled by caretaker President Adly Mansour is intended to replace the controversial Islamist-drafted constitution, suspended on Morsi's ouster by the army.

A committee will be set up to make final improvements to the draft before it is put to a referendum.

Parliamentary elections will then follow within three months and Mansour will announce a date for a presidential election once the new parliament has convened.

The United States, which provides $1.5 billion in mainly military aid to Egypt, said it was "cautiously encouraged" by the timetable proposed for a new presidential election.

The Egyptian military has come under huge international pressure to swiftly install an interim civilian administration, pressure that has only intensified since gunfire killed 51 people, mostly Islamist protesters, outside a Cairo army base on Monday.

Hours after unveiling the new charter, Mansour named a vice president and a prime minister, his spokesman Ahmed al-Muslimani said.

Former finance minister Hazem al-Beblawi was named prime minister. Former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate, was named vice president for foreign affairs.

Even though ElBaradei was its designated negotiator in talks on the transition, the grassroots Tamarod campaign which organised the mass protests that led up to Morsi's overthrow complained it had not been consulted on the transition plan.

Tamarod spokesman Mahmud Badr said the movement would make proposals for changes to the blueprint.

The Brotherhood rejected the plan outright.

"A constitutional decree by a man appointed by putschists... brings the country back to square one," senior Brotherhood official Essam al-Erian said in a Facebook posting.

But the army warned against any disruption of the plans.

A statement read out on state television said neither the armed forces nor the people of Egypt would accept "the stalling or disruption" of this "difficult and complex" period.

The Brotherhood held fresh protests on Tuesday against both Morsi's ouster and the fatal shooting outside the Cairo headquarter of the elite Republican Guard.

"Each province is organising funerals and rallies (Tuesday), and each province will have a central sit-in," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad told AFP.

Mansour ordered an independent inquiry into the bloodshed, which sparked expressions of concern and condemnation from around the world.

The Brotherhood released the names of 42 people killed in the shooting, as the interior ministry and military said two policemen and a soldier were also killed.

Emergency services chief Mohammed Sultan said at least 51 people were killed.

Emotions ran high as people searched for the names of missing loved ones on a list of the dead in hospital, where dozens of bodies were laid on the bloody floor of a makeshift mortuary.

The army warned it would not allow anyone to threaten national security, urging protesters to stay away from military installations and to end their sit-ins.

International condemnation of Monday's bloodshed poured in, with Germany expressing "shock" at the violence and Turkey calling it an attack on "humanity".

The United States called on the Egyptian army to exercise "maximum restraint", while also condemning "explicit" Brotherhood calls to violence.

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), had called for "an uprising by the great people of Egypt against those trying to steal their revolution with tanks".

Morsi's single year of turbulent rule was marked by accusations he failed the 2011 revolution that ousted autocratic president Hosni Mubarak by concentrating power in Islamist hands and letting the economy nosedive.

In a boost for the economy, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that they would give Egypt $8 billion in assistance.

The figure matched the $8 billion that had been pledged while Morsi was still in power by another Gulf state, Qatar, which is seen as close to his Muslim Brotherhood.