Egypt opposition rejects talks offer

Egypt has started a dialogue with "political parties and national forces," state television said yesterday, but the main opposition coalition rejected any talks before President Hosni Mubarak goes.
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said talks would involve protesters in Tahrir square, focal point of sometimes deadly anti-Mubarak rallies which entered their tenth day.
He said that anti-government protesters will not achieve anything new by staying on in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
On the other hand, Mubarak in an interview with ABC television said he wants to leave office, but fears there will be chaos if he resigns now.
The beleaguered Egyptian leader said he was "fed-up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot... for fear that the country would sink into chaos," ABC's Christiane Amanpour said, after interviewing Mubarak.
Mubarak, who has vowed not to stand in upcoming elections, has come under increasing pressure from the United States and the West to step down amid 10 days of violent protests against his 30-year rule.
Meanwhile, Egyptian army tanks and soldiers cleared away pro-government rioters, and deployed between them and protesters seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, as the prime minister made an unprecedented apology yesterday for the assault by regime backers that turned central Cairo into a battle zone.
Shafiq told state TV that the attack Wednesday on the anti-government protesters was a "blatant mistake" and promised to investigate who was behind it.
"I offer all my apologies for what happened yesterday and there will be an enquiry," Shafiq told state television as the fighting on Tahrir Square raged for a second day with at least seven people dead.
Shafiq, who became premier after Mubarak sacked the government in a bid to quell the protests, said earlier that the deadly unrest would be investigated, amid allegations that plain clothes police were involved.
The army stood by as Mubarak supporters attacked their anti-regime opponents, using guns, petrol bombs, sticks and rocks.
Shafiq later told journalists that he was unsure whether the attacks had been organised.
"I don't know if it was organised or spontaneous," he said during a televised news conference.
"There were clashes. And clashes between youths are always more heated. It seems they were carrying some weapons."
"Egyptian hearts are bleeding," he said. "It was a bloody night, with much damage."
The military began to move with muscle for the first time to stop the fighting early yesterday after a barrage of automatic gunfire hit the anti-government camp before dawn, killing at least three protesters in a serious escalation.
Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from which Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs onto the protesters. Soldiers on the streets carrying rifles lined up between the two sides around 11:00am. Several hundred other soldiers were moving toward the front line.
More protesters streamed into the square yesterday morning, joining the thousands of defenders who spent the chilly night there, hunkered down against the thousands of government supporters in the surrounding streets.
A sense of victory ran through the protesters, even as they organised their ranks in the streets in case of a new assault. "Thank God, we managed to protect the whole area," said Abdul-Rahman, a taxi driver who spent the night in the square. "We prevented the pro-Mubarak people from storming the streets leading to the square." He refused to give his full name.
The apology by Shafiq, who was appointed by Mubarak over the weekend, was highly unusual from a leadership that rarely makes public admissions of a mistake. His promise to investigate who organised the attack came only hours after the Interior Ministry issued a denial that any of its police were involved.
"I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it's neither logical nor rational," Shafiq said. "What happened was wrong, a million percent wrong, whether it was deliberate or not deliberate ... Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated so everyone knows who was behind it."
The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, whose vigil in Tahrir Square had been peaceful for days, prompted a sharp rebuke from Washington, which has considered Egypt its most important Arab ally for decades, and sends it $1.5 billion a year in aid.
"If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.