The United States believes "the Egyptian government is stable," despite stunning protests calling for the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday.
Clinton's comments on Tuesday came after thousands of Egyptians, inspired by Tunisian demonstrators, gathered in Cairo and towns across the country calling for reforms and demanding an end to Mubarak's presidency, which has now lasted for nearly three decades.
Thousands of demonstrators attended the anti-government protests. Some in downtown Cairo hurled rocks and climbed atop an armoured police truck.
In a statement issued Tuesday night, the Egyptian interior ministry blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's technically banned but largest opposition group, for fomenting the protests.
Police responded to the demonstraters blasts from a water cannon, and set upon crowds with batons and acrid clouds of tear gas to clear them crying out "Down with Mubarak'' and demanding an end to the country's grinding poverty.
Police have also used rubber bullets against protesters, with some injuries, reported Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo.
Clinton urged all sides in Egypt to exercise restraint following the street protests, saying she believed the government was looking for ways to respond to its populations concerns.
But at least 30 people are already reported to have been arrested in Cairo, official sources said.
More protests
Protests also broke out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the Nile Delta cities of Mansura and Tanta and in the southern cities of Aswan and Assiut, witnesses reported.
The rallies had been promoted online by groups saying they speak for young Egyptians frustrated by the kind of poverty and oppression which triggered the overthrow of Tunisia's president.
Egyptian blogger Hossam El Hamalawy said technology was important in facilitating "the domino effect" needed for demonstrations like this one to progress.
Mamdouh Khayrat, 23, travelled from the governorate of Qalubiya to attend protests in Cairo. He spoke to Al Jazeera's Adam Makary. "We want a functioning government, we want Mubarak to step down, we don't want emergency law, we don't want to live under this kind of oppression anymore," he said.
"Enough is enough, things have to change and if Tunisia can do it, why can't we?" Khayrat added.
El Hamalawy told Al Jazeera the protests were necessary "to send a message to the Egyptian regime that Mubarak is no different than Ben Ali and we want him to leave too".
On Tuesday downtown Cairo came to a standstill with protesters chanting slogans and marching towards what Al Jazeera's Rageh called the "symbols of their complaints and their agony," the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party, the foreign ministry and the state television.
Scenes such as these have not been seen in the capital since the 1970s.
A day of revolution
Black-clad riot police, backed by armoured vehicles and fire engines, have been deployed in a massive security operation in Cairo, with the biggest concentrations and likely flashpoints, including: the Cairo University campus, the central Tahrir Square and the courthouse where protesters are said to be gathering.
Coinciding with a national holiday in honour of the police, a key force in keeping president Mubarak in power for 30 years, the outcome in Egypt on Tuesday is seen as a test on whether vibrant Web activism can translate into street action.
Organisers have called for a "day of revolution against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment".
"Activists said they wanted to use this particular day to highlight the irony of celebrating Egypt's police at a time when police brutality is making headlines," Al Jazeera's Rageh reported.
Banned demonstrations
The Egyptian government had earlier warned protesters.
"The security apparatus will deal firmly and decisively with any attempt to break the law," the government's director for security in the capital Cairo said in a statement released ahead of the protests.
Since Egypt bans demonstrations without prior permission, opposition groups say they have been denied such permits, any protesters may be detained.
Habib el-Adli, the interior minister, had earlier issued orders to "arrest any persons expressing their views illegally".
"Beginning of the end"
Activists have been relying heavily on social networks to organise the protests.
"Our protest on the 25th is the beginning of the end," wrote organisers of a Facebook group with 87,000 followers.
"People are fed up of Mubarak and of his dictatorship and of his torture chambers and of his failed economic policies. If Mubarak is not overthrown tomorrow then it will be the day after. If its not the day after its going to be next week," El Hamalawy told Al Jazeera.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged Egypt's authorities "to allow peaceful protests".
Protests in Egypt, the biggest Arab state and a keystone Western ally in the Middle East, tend to be poorly attended and are often quashed swiftly by the police, who prevent marching.
Source:Al Jazeera and agencies
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