CAIRO, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- President Hosni Mubarak was said to be on the brink of giving up Monday as two top advisers told him to leave and Washington prepared for Egypt without him.
Newly named Vice President Omar Suleiman and Defense Minister Mohamed Tantawi "raised with (Mubarak) the idea that he should leave," the Sunday Times of London reported.
The 82-year-old Mubarak, whose nearly 30-year grip on power in Egypt has been threatened in the past week by widespread protests, held talks with Suleiman, Tantawi, Chief of Staff Sami al-Anan and other senior commanders Saturday.
Suleiman, 75, was expecting a telephone call of support from Washington, which considers the lieutenant general an "island of stability," the Times said.
A diplomatic cable recently released by WikiLeaks described Suleiman, Egypt's intelligence chief until his vice presidential appointment Saturday, as avidly opposed to radicalism -- especially in Gaza, Iran and Sudan -- and in favor of close relations with Washington.
Suleiman and Tantawi were looking for a "respectable" way for Mubarak to leave, the Times said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rocham Clinton called for "an orderly transition" to a "real democracy," but stopped short of calling for Mubarak to step down.
She told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday Washington was "ready to help with the kind of transition that will lead to greater political and economic freedom" and emphasized elections set for this fall must be free and fair.
As protests resumed Monday and reports of looting spread, Mubarak told the state-run Nile TV satellite news channel the protests required his government "to reorganize the country's priorities in way that acknowledges the legitimate demands of the people".
He urged newly appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to pursue "a wide range of dialogue with all the (political) parties" when shaping a new Cabinet to "achieve the democratic process".
Egypt's powerful Society of the Muslim Brothers, also known as the Muslim Brotherhood, banded together with the secular opposition Sunday to support government critic and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to represent a loosely unified opposition in the drive to remove Mubarak and his ruling National Democratic Party from power.
ElBaradei defied a government curfew and joined thousands of protesters in Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, Sunday night.
"Today we are proud of Egyptians," ElBaradei told the pressing crowd. "We have restored our rights, restored our freedom, and what we have begun cannot be reversed".
ElBaradei, who declared a "new era" for Egypt, also criticized the Obama administration for refusing to call on Mubarak to step down, asserting it was eroding U.S. credibility.
"It's better for President Obama not to appear that he is the last one to say to President Mubarak, it's time for you to go," The New York Times quoted ElBaradei as saying.
Police were back on Cairo's streets Monday as activists called for a general strike on the seventh day of protests. UPI
