Egyptian vice-president said the alternative to dialogue is a coup. [EPA] Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian vice-president, warned on Tuesday that his government "can't put up with continued protests" for a long time, as tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square for the sixteenth day in a row. In a sharply worded statement reflecting the regime's impatience and frustration with the mass demonstrations, the newly appointed Suleiman said the crisis must be ended as soon as possible. Increasingly the public face of the embattled government, Suleiman said there will be "no ending of the regime" and no immediate departure for President Hosni Mubarak, according to the state news agency MENA, reporting on a meeting between the vice-president and independent newspapers. The immediate departure of Mubarak is a key demand for the pro-democracy demonstrators. Mubarak's pledge to not seek another term later this year didn't tame the angry protests. Meanwhile, the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon added his voice to host of countries calling for "an orderly transition" in Egypt. Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Moon said Egyptian government must heed the call from its people for greater reform immediately. Subtle threat Suleiman reportedly told the editors of the newspapers that the regime wants dialogue to resolve protesters' demands for democratic reform, adding, in a veiled warning, that the government doesn't "want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools." Click here for more on Al Jazeera's special coverage At one point in the roundtable meeting, Suleiman warned that the alternative to dialogue "is that a coup happens, which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities. We don't want to reach that point, to protect Egypt." Pressed by the editors to explain the comment, he said he did not mean a military coup but that "a force that is unprepared for rule" could overturn state institutions, said Amr Khafagi, editor-in-chief of the privately-owned Shorouk daily, who attended the briefing. "He doesn't mean it in the classical way." "The presence of the protesters in Tahrir Square and some satellite stations insulting Egypt and belittling it makes citizens hesitant to go to work," he said. Egyptian military, widely hailed for professionalism and restraint, has vowed not to use force against peaceful protesters. President Mubarak, his deputy and the new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, are all retired military officers with deep links to the institution. Sticks and carrots Suleiman warned that calls by some protesters for a campaign of civil disobedience are "very dangerous for society and we can't put up with this at all." This comes a day after Suleiman announced a slew of constitutional reforms, to be undertaken by yet to be formed committees. Suleiman said that one committee would carry out constitutional and legislative amendments to enable a shift of power while a separate committee will be set up to monitor the implementation of all proposed reforms. The two committees will start working immediately, he said. Suleiman stressed that demonstrators will not be prosecuted and that a separate independent fact-finding committee would be established to probe the violence on February 2. ||||| Tens of thousands of Islamist and secular protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square and Alexandria on Friday for a mass rally to pressure the ruling military council to hand over power to a civilian government. 
 
 The demonstration, dubbed the "Friday of One Demand," was called in response to a document of "supraconstitutional" principles floated by the government that declares the military the guardian of "constitutional legitimacy", suggesting the armed forces could have the final word on major policies even after a civilian parliament and president are elected. 
 
 A wide spectrum of political groups including liberals and ultraconservative Islamists have decried the document even as they reportedly negotiate with the government to get it changed. 
 
 Though opposition to the military's perceived power grab comes from all sides, Muslim religious movements are the most vocal. They fear that the document will push Egypt toward a more civil, secular state. 
 
 Yasir Hamida, a 40-year-old member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Al Jazeera's Malka Bilal that he had lived through the former regime and now wanted to "do something for our kids". 
 
 "My demand is that the ... document be cancelled. Enough. We are tired now. We thank the army, but it's time to transfer power and let the parliament start organising a constitution and get ready for a civilian state," he said. "I'm happy that all the coalitions are here today." 
 
 Elections for the lower house of parliament, the People's Assembly, begin on November 28 and will last until January, occurring in three stages. The upper house, or Shura Council, will be elected after that. 
 
 The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which assumed ultimate executive power after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February, initially promised a presidential election in early 2012 but has recently suggested it could occur as late as 2013. In the meantime, the SCAF will be able to propose and veto legislation, convene and adjourn parliament, and appoint the prime minister and cabinet. 
 
 Liberals join with Islamists 
 
 Friday's protest drew political parties and religious movements of different stripes, though the loudest voices in the square came from Islamists, including hardline Salafis and the comparatively moderate Muslim Brotherhood. 
 
 Liberal, leftist and Islamist parties and groups such as the April 6 Movement, founded in solidarity with labour protests, participated in the rally. Islamists joined with their call to put an end to military trials of civilians, which have led to the incarceration of thousands in proceedings described by human rights activists as opaque and unfair. 
 
 Anan Zuhairi, a 26-year-old doctor, told Bilal she was not with any party or political movement but that she joined the protest because "nothing has been resolved since the revolution". 
 
 "Nothing we revolted for has happened. Emergency law is still not canceled. People are being taken out of their homes. Our demands have remained the same except they've become more," she said. "We just want democracy and freedom. The people with opinions are all in prisons." 
 
 The two main demands of the protesters were to prevent the imposition of the government's document and to set a date for the presidential elections, Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros said. 
 
 "People are saying there has been no referendum on this document, and are asking why it is being imposed before the upcoming elections," she said. "They see this as the military trying to impose their rule." 
 
 "They are telling the military to stop trying to unilaterally control this transition period," she said. 
 
 Document shields SCAF budget 
 
 Though some parties had called for an extended sit-in, most of the crowd started to leave after the sun set and the weather began to turn cold, Tadros said, and the Muslim Brotherhood instructed its supporters to go home by 8pm. 
 
 Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, in the northern coastal city of Alexandria, reported that thousands of people had also gathered there, "mainly heeding the call from the Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood." 
 
 After prayers, the crowd marched from mosques to a major military headquarters to protest the SCAF's rule. 
 
 Protesters chanted "we do not want military rule" and "we must protect our revolution". 
 
 The contested government document, written by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Selmi, includes clauses that remove the military's budget from parliamentary oversight and allow the SCAF a final say on military-related matters. Selmi and the rest of the cabinet have been approved by the SCAF and ultimately answer to the military. 
 
 The government has revised the draft, but Islamists, who organised a mass protest in July against such a charter, have rejected the very idea of a document that would limit parliament's authority to draft the constitution, branding the articles as undemocratic. 
 
 The Muslim Brotherhood, through its Freedom and Justice Party, may emerge as the largest bloc in the election. ||||| Egypt's interim administration has published a timetable for a transition to a new democratic government, hours after the Muslim Brotherhood called for nationwide protests after the army shot dead scores of people outside the elite Republican Guards' headquarters in Cairo. 
 
 The interim administration expressed "deep regret" for those killed in violence in Cairo on Monday, adding that it had formed a judicial committee to investigate the events. 
 
 Interim president Adly Mansour on Tuesday morning released details of a timetable for parliamentary elections by 2014, after which a date will be announced for a presidential ballot. 
 
 The country will have five months to amend the current draft constitution, suspended following Mohamed Morsi's removal last week, ratify it in a referendum, and then hold parliamentary elections, according to the text of the 33-article decree published online. 
 
 The whole process will take no more than 210 days, according to the decree, meaning elections will be by February at the latest. 
 
 A senior Muslim Brotherhood official denounced the decree. "A constitutional decree by a man appointed by putchists... brings the country back to square one," said Essam al-Erian in a Facebook posting. 
 
 Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Cairo, said that some liberal opposition parties have said that instead of the constitution being amended a new one should be made. 
 
 She added that Cairo has been quiet since morning, with a few rallies and protests at Nasr City but not in large numbers. Our correspondent said that more pro-Morsi protesters are expected to turn out later. 
 
 The Brotherhood has called for nationwide protests to take place a day after a deadly shooting at the site of a sit-in by its supporters in Cairo left at least 51 dead and hundreds injured. 
 
 The Islamist group released the names of 42 people killed outside the Republican Guards' building, as the interior ministry and military said two policemen and a soldier were also killed. 
 
 
 
 The military blamed "terrorists", while witnesses, including Brotherhood supporters at the scene, said security forces fired only warning shots and tear gas, and that "thugs" in civilian clothes carried out the shootings. 
 
 
 
 The US called on the Egyptian army to exercise "maximum restraint", while also condemning "explicit" Brotherhood calls to violence. 
 
 'Monday Massacre' 
 
 Mohamed Ibrahim El-Beltagy, a Brotherhood MP, described the shootings during dawn prayers after police had stormed the site as a "massacre". ||||| CAIRO - Soldiers evicted demonstrators from parts of Tahrir Square on Sunday as they tried to restore a measure of normalcy to the Egyptian capital. But tensions flared elsewhere as police and civil servants took advantage of the country's revolutionary tumult to press their own demands for change. 
 
 Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq presided over the Egyptian government's first cabinet meeting since President Hosni Mubarak's abrupt resignation Friday. "Our concern now in the cabinet is security, to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen," he said at a press conference. 
 
 The Egyptian military has been in control of the country since Mubarak's departure. But military chiefs have ordered the civilian government to remain in place in a caretaker role until a new government is formed. 
 
 As daylight broke, soldiers dismantled tents from the makeshift camps that have occupied Tahrir Square since Jan. 25, when protests erupted in Cairo. Some weary demonstrators evacuated voluntarily. Others stood their ground or scuffled with soldiers, though both sides generally refrained from brute force. 
 
 By mid-morning, the military had re-opened the square to traffic for the first time in three weeks. But an uneasy mood persisted. A few thousand protesters flocked back to the square as the day unfolded, saying they were not ready to give up. 
 
 "We want to stay here until they fulfill our demands," said Mahmoud Sharif, 27, who had 10 days and nights in Tahrir. 
 
 Meanwhile, pockets of disorder erupted elsewhere. An aggressive crowd of several hundred police officers - who have largely been on strike or absent from the streets for the past 10 days - marched through the streets to demand pay raises and other benefits. 
 
 Many Egyptians harbor deep suspicions about the police, who roughly tried to suppress anti-Mubarak protests in the days prior to his resignation. In contrast, Egyptians have expressed gratitude to the armed forces for standing by and not interfering with the revolution. 
 
 The police demonstrators, clad mostly in black leather jackets, swept past a handful of military checkpoints to reach Tahrir Square. There, they stood nose-to-nose with pro-democracy protesters, who seemed skeptical of their intentions. 
 
 Chanting, "The police and the people are one," the officers avoided a confrontation and marched a few blocks to the Egyptian Interior Ministry building, where they were finally halted by an army barricade and a three-star general standing athwart a tank. 
 
 The police, who report to the ministry, laid out demands for better pay and health care. But they also seemed intent on trying to repair their public image as pro-Mubarak bullies. "We are not thieves," they chanted. 
 
 "We have been accused of running away from the city [during the revolution], but we didn't run away," said Mohammed Said, a 15-year veteran of the Cairo police force. He said he earned only 500 Egyptian pounds a month, or about $85, and wanted more.
– Egypt coverage is mostly celebratory today—"a new dawn," is the phrase of choice for both al-Jazeera and the Guardian, while the New York Times has it that a "new era dawned"—as attention turns to the what-comes-next question. Along those lines: The main coalition of protest groups says it will leave Tahrir Square after three weeks but called for weekly demonstrations to maintain pressure on the military for promised reform, reports AP. In a televised statement, the military pledged to hand over power to a democratically elected civilian government and to abide by all international treaties. It asked the current government, recently appointed by Hosni Mubarak, to stay in place until a transitional one can be formed. Not all the protesters are leaving, apparently. One tells the Washington Post: "This is a revolution, not a half-revolution. We need a timetable for elections. We need an interim government. We need a committee for a new constitution. Once we get all that, then we can leave the square."