Mubarak promises elections, won't step down

CAIRO - President Hosni Mubarak announced Tuesday he will not run for a new term in September elections but he rejected protesters' demands he step down immediately and leave the country, vowing to die on Egypt's soil, after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million Egyptians staged their biggest protest yet, calling on him to go.

Soon after his speech, clashes erupted between protesters and government supporters in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, and gunshots were heard, according to footage by Al-Jazeera television.

Mubarak's halfway concession - an end to his rule seven months down the road - threatened to inflame frustration and anger among protesters, who have been peaceful in recent days but have made clear they will not end their unprecedented week-old wave of demonstrations until he is out.

The speech was immediately derided by protesters massed in Cairo's central Tahrir Square. Watching his speech on a giant TV, protesters booed and waved their shoes over their heads at his image in a sign of contempt.

"Go, go, go! We are not leaving until he leaves," they chanted.

In the 10-minute address, Mubarak appeared somber but spoke firmly without an air of defeat. The president who has ruled the country for nearly three decades - and during that time has rarely if ever admitted to making a mistake or reversing himself under pressure - insisted that his decision not to run for a new six-year term had nothing to do with the protests.

"I tell you in all sincerity, regardless of the current circumstances, I never intended to be a candidate for another term," he said. "I will work for the final remaining months of the current term to accomplish the necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power."

Mubarak, a former air force commander, resolutely vowed not to flee the country. "This is my dear homeland . . . I have lived in it, I fought for it and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me and all of us."

The United States has been struggling to find a way to ease Mubarak out of office while maintaining stability in Egypt, a key ally in the Mideast that has a 30-year-old peace treaty with Israel and has been a bulwark against Islamic militancy.

An envoy sent by President Barack Obama to work out a transition - former U.S. ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, a friend of the Egyptian president - told Mubarak directly of the U.S "view that his tenure as president is coming to a close," according to an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the ongoing diplomacy.