Egypt's military tomove on cabinet,march expected

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's new military rulers were
expected to unveil a new
cabinet on Tuesday with pro-
democracy protesters
planning a march to pressure
the generals to purge the old guard of deposed president
Hosni Mubarak. Leaks of the reshuffle to state
media showing key ministers,
such as foreign, finance and
interior, unchanged were
greeted with a sour reaction
by reformists who want a fresh cabinet with technocrats
to run the Arab world's most
populous nation. As the military struggled to
organize a handover to power
with free and fair elections in
six months after the downfall
of Mubarak, its neighbor Libya
was engulfed by a fierce crackdown on a mounting
revolt to the 41-year rule of
Muammar Gadaffi. EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton was in Cairo
on Tuesday to offer
international aid to help the
Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces to get the country back to work and to secure a
peaceful, swift and orderly
transition of power. "I am certainly looking at
ways for us to offer support,"
Ashton told reporters, after a
visit by British Prime Minister
David Cameron and U.S.
officials, offering help to the rulers of this key American
ally that has a peace treaty
with Israel. The Islamist Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt's most
powerful political
organization which has a
growing influence in the post-
Mubarak era, said it was not offered a portfolio. Others
referred to in leaks of a
reshuffle defended their
appointments. BROTHERHOOD, OTHERS WANT
PURGE Others involved in the
movement that toppled
Mubarak's 30-year rule with
an 18-day uprising signaled
their displeasure at the plans
by the council, led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein
Tantawi, who has been
defense minister for two
decades. Millions turned out for Egypt's
uprising, centered around
Cairo's Tahrir Square, to
protest about corruption,
repression and poverty,
whipping up a revolution that toppled Mubarak, a former air
force commander who took
over after Anwar Sadat was
assassinated in 1981. The military dissolved
parliament, suspended the
constitution and promised
presidential and parliamentary
elections in six months but
reformists are urging wider reforms and the lifting of
emergency law imposed after
Sadat's killing. A group of youths called the
People's National Movement
for Change will stage a march
from Talaat Harb Square to
Tahrir Square at 2 p.m. on
Tuesday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister
Ahmed Shafiq's interim
government. The protesters said they
would give the cabinet until
Wednesday to resign and will
call for a big sit-in in Tahrir on
Thursday and a march on
Friday. "We will march in protest to
demand the resignation of
Shafiq's government and
abolishing emergency law and
the trial of Mubarak and his
family," the movement's Mohamed Fahmy said, adding
the group also demanded
setting a new minimum
wage. The military, facing protests
over wages and conditions
that sprang out of the nation's
new found post-Mubarak
freedom, has effectively
banned strikes and industrial action to get the nation back
on its feet and to restart the
damaged economy