"This is not the end of Egypt's transition. It's a beginning. I'm sure there will be difficult days ahead and many questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks."

Other world leaders, among them the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, have reacted too. Mr Ban said the voice of the Egyptian people had been heard.

In Tunisia, where people overthrew their own president last month, there was dancing in the streets and car horns were blaring in celebration of President Mubarak's resignation. There was also

jubilation

across the Palestinian territories. The Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, said it was the start of the Egyptian revolution.

President Mubarak was appointed vice president after a successful career in the military and became leader following the assassination of the President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Caroline Hawley has this assessment of Hosni Mubarak's career.

It was amid turmoil that Hosni Mubarak became president when his predecessor Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.

A military man, stability was the obsession of his regime at the expense of human rights, but he was violently opposed by Islamist extremists, and his rule was challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood, and more recently by a growing secular opposition inspired by the revolution in Tunisia. It was they who brought the people onto the streets. President Mubarak made