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By HAMZA HENDAWI and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press


      CAIRO (AP) - President Hosni Mubarak set up a committee Tuesday
to recommend constitutional amendments to relax presidential
eligibility rules and impose term limits - seeking to meet longtime
popular demands as a standoff with protesters seeking his ouster
enters its third week.


      Mubarak's decrees were announced on state television by Vice
President Omar Suleiman, who also said that Mubarak will set up a
separate committee to monitor the implementation of all proposed
reforms. The two committees will start working immediately, he
said.


      The government has promised several concessions since the
uprising began on Jan. 25 but has refused the protesters' main
demand that Mubarak step down immediately instead of staying on
through September elections. Tuesday's decision was the first
concrete step taken by the longtime authoritarian ruler to
implement promised reforms.


      Mubarak's efforts to stay in office got a boost from the Obama
administration, which conceded that it will not endorse calls for
the president's immediate departure, saying a precipitous exit
could set back the country's democratic transition.


      After several days of mixed messages about whether it wants to
see Mubarak stay or go, Washington stepped up calls for a faster,
more inclusive national dialogue on reform in Egypt. Under Egypt's
constitution, Mubarak's resignation would trigger an election in 60
days. U.S. officials said that is not enough time to prepare.


      "A question that that would pose is whether Egypt today is
prepared to have a competitive, open election," State Department
spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "Given the recent past, where, quite
honestly, elections were less than free and fair there's a lot of
work that has to be done to get to a point where you can have free
and fair elections."


      "I think that would be a challenging undertaking," he said.


      Mubarak also ordered a probe into last week's clashes between
the protesters and government supporters as well as mass detentions
of human rights activists and journalists. The committee will refer
its findings to the attorney-general, Suleiman said.


      "The youth of Egypt deserve national appreciation," he quoted
the president as saying. "They should not be detained, harassed or
denied their freedom of expression."


      The committee considering constitutional and legislative changes
will be led by the head of Egypt's highest appellate court and
composed of six senior judges and four constitutional experts,
according to a statement issued later by the official news agency
MENA. It will make its recommendations to Suleiman by the end of
this month.


      The latest government announcement came two days after Suleiman
met for the first time with representatives of opposition groups,
including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood - the country's largest
and best organized opposition group - to debate a way out of the
ongoing political crisis.


      The fundamentalist Islamic group issued a statement earlier
Tuesday calling the reforms proposed so far as "partial" and
insisting that Mubarak must go to ease what it called the anger
felt by Egyptians who face widespread poverty and government
repression.


      The Brotherhood also accused pro-Mubarak thugs of detaining
protesters, including Brotherhood supporters, and handing them over
to the army's military police who torture them.


      "We call on the military, which we love and respect, to refrain
from these malicious acts," said the statement.


      The president went on with official business Tuesday, receiving
the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah
Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.


      Thousands of protesters, meanwhile, remained camped out in the
central Tahrir Square, many hoping for an appearance by Google Inc.
executive Wael Ghonim, a 30-year-old marketing manager who has
emerged as a rallying point after he was released Monday after 12
days in custody.


      About 90,000 people have joined a Facebook group nominating
Ghonim to be their spokesman. Many demonstrators reject a group of
officially sanctioned and traditional Egyptian opposition groups
that have been negotiating with the government on their behalf in
recent days.


      Some on the square chanted "Wael Ghonim is coming today,"
although reports that he planned to appear couldn't be confirmed.


      Protesters have lacked a clear, representative voice and many
worry the traditional parties are trying to hijack the uprising,
which began when activists used the Internet's social networks to
mobilize the hundreds of thousands who first took to the streets.


      The demonstrators have said they would not enter negotiations
with the regime before Mubarak's departure. Mubarak insists that he
intends to serve the remainder of his current, six-year term, which
expires in September, and that he would die in Egypt, thus
rejecting any suggestion that he should leave the country.


      Protesters appear to have settled in for a long standoff,
turning Tahrir Square into a makeshift village. Tens of thousands
come every day, with some sleeping in tents made of blankets and
plastic sheeting.

      At mid-morning Tuesday, volunteers swept the dusty grounds, as
several thousand milled in the plaza. Impromptu security details,
including young girls in headscarves, screened visitors for weapons
at the square's entrances. At a field hospital in a small mosque
bordering the square, nurses sorted donated medicines. The mother
of a young man wounded in the clashes stood near one of the
entrances, silently holding up his bloodied shirt.


      Graphic designer Walid Abdullah, 41, sporting a stubble and a
black-and-white checkered scarf wrapped around his head, said he's
been in the square from the start. Like many of the protesters, he
said he will not leave until Mubarak steps down.

      "There's no such thing as a half-revolution," said father of
three Abdullah, who lives on $335 a month.

      U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has told The Associated Press that
two weeks of clashes have claimed at least 297 lives, by far the
highest and most detailed toll released so far. It was based on
visits to seven hospitals in three cities and the group said it was
likely to rise.


      Associated Press writer Karin Laub contributed to this report.

Gallery

Egypt approves 15 percent raise for govt employees

Egypt VP meets opposition, offers new concessions

Egypt ruling party leaders resign but regime holds

Mass anti-Mubarak protest celebrates after battles

President Hosni Mubarak set up a committee Tuesday
to recommend constitutional amendments to relax presidential
eligibility rules and impose term limits - seeking to meet longtime
popular demands as a standoff with protesters seeking his ouster
enters its third week.

Egypt's Mubarak forms reform committees

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