BBC News with Mike Cooper

The leader of Egypt's ruling military council has promised to bring forward presidential elections to next year. In a live television address, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said next week's parliamentary elections will not be cancelled. He also offered

condolences

to the families of protesters killed over the past few days, but said the military had not fired a single shot on Egyptian citizens. From Cairo, here's Yolande Knell.

The head of the armed forces council insisted that the military didn't aspire to power. He said it was committed to holding parliamentary elections on schedule from next Monday and that a new president would be elected sooner than expected by the end of June. He added that the resignation of the current interim cabinet had been accepted but that it would continue working until a new government was formed.

Despite the pledges made by Field Marshal Tantawi, thousands of protesters in Cairo and other major cities are still demanding that the military leadership give up all attempts to hold on to power, and clashes with security forces are continuing around Tahrir Square, as Hugh Sykes now reports.

This is just a constant to-and-fro of the crowds moving towards the police, some of them prepared with petrol bombs, many of them holding rocks and throwing them at the police. And when they get too close, the police

loose off

a tear gas

canister