implement

the demands of the people. "We will do it with

frankness

and transparency," he said. And he praised the dialogue that has already taken place. He's set out a plan to go forward. There will be constitutional amendments, ad hoc legislative changes, he said, but it's certainly not what the people were expecting, and it remains to be seen tomorrow, Friday, the day of prayer, what they make of what they've seen from their president.

Christian Fraser in Cairo, thank you very much for that.

Don't forget you can get the very latest on the events in Egypt on our website. We've live updates at bbcnews.com.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square in expectation of hearing from President Mubarak after 17 days pressing for his resignation. The atmosphere was

euphoric

after an Egyptian army commander told protesters that all their demands would be met. But some are said to be concerned that the army could try to take power. Magdi Abdelhadi reports from Tahrir Square.

There's a huge crowd here. It's packed. The square is packed. Sometimes it's so difficult to move from one spot to the other. People dancing, chanting, they are happy. Clearly the people are delighted. They feel that they have had their way even if the army were to

assume

power. Some people here think the army is much better than Mubarak, but there are those who of course are worried that the army might mean military rule, so they've asked for democracy and said what the...instead of democracy they got a military rule.