Opponents, West urge Hosni Mubarak to step down after 6 casualties during protests

Gunmen fired on anti-government protesters in Cairo, where fighting killed six and wounded over 800 and prompted new calls on Thursday from Western powers for President Hosni Mubarak to start handing over power immediately.

Thousands of angry young demonstrators on Tahrir Square said those who opened fire on them overnight were secret policemen. They insisted their resolve had only hardened. Scornful of Mubarak's pledge on Tuesday to step down, but only in September, they vowed to stand firm until the 82-year-old leader is gone.

Opposition leaders including the liberal figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei and the mass Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood rejected a call to talks from Mubarak's new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq. Only the president's departure and an end to violence would bring them to negotiations, they said.

The want free elections to tackle corruption and political repression which they blame for growing economic hardships similar to those frustrating people across the Arab world.

"One way or another we will bring Mubarak down," protesters chanted in the morning, amid rubble and burned out cars. "We will not give up, we will not sell out," others shouted.

Egypt's army and the Western powers which have supported it and Mubarak as bulwarks against radical Islam have key roles to play, as the president's supporters seek to rally those Egyptians with much to lose from a collapse of the old order.

Many analysts see the army seeking to preserve its own 60-year-old position at the heart of secular Egyptian society by engineering a smooth removal of Mubarak, a former air force commander. On Monday, it called protesters' demands legitimate and pledged not to open fire, given heart to the opposition.

But on Wednesday, troops stood by as Mubarak loyalists charged Tahrir Square on horseback and camels, lashing out at civilians. After dark, several demonstrators were shot dead.

Only on Thursday morning did soldiers set up a clear buffer zone around the square to separate the factions. But that did not prevent new clashes, as groups pelted each other with rocks.

Soldiers with a tank pushed back Mubarak supporters.

The United States, which gives Egypt's army some $1.3 billion a year, has made clear it wants Mubarak out, but has shied away from fully backing the opposition demands for him to leave the presidency immediately. The violence, however, has given fuel to international impatience with their Arab ally.

"This process of transition must start now," the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said in a statement.

They echoed the message US President Barack Obama said he gave Mubarak in a phone call on Tuesday.

The European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said her team had been calling Egypt overnight urging the army to protect the demonstrators and to give access for ambulances.

A senior US official said "somebody loyal to Mubarak has unleashed these guys to try to intimidate the protesters".

An Egyptian government spokesperson called it a "fiction" to accuse ministers of orchestrating the violence. Demonstrators said over 100 attackers they seized were carrying documents associating them with the police or with Mubarak's ruling party.

"What happened yesterday made us more determined to remove President Mubarak," protest movement Kefaya, or Enough, said.

"There will be no negotiations with any member of Mubarak's regime after what happened yesterday and what is still happening in Tahrir Square."

In a statement on al Jazeera, the Brotherhood said: "We demand that this regime is overthrown and we demand the formation of a national unity government for all the factions."

Support for a new order is far from unanimous, however.

Many of the 80 million Egyptians have much to lose from change, whether businesspeople enjoying lucrative concessions in the mixed economy or those employed by the extensive apparatus of the state and its security forces. An even greater number is losing patience with unrest after 10 days of dislocation.

"I just want to see security back on the streets so that I can go on with my life," said Amira Hassan, 55, Cairo teacher. "It makes no difference to me whether Mubarak stays or leaves."

The protesters in Tahrir Square, reduced largely to a youthful hard core including secular middle class graduates and mostly poorer activists from the Muslim Brotherhood, have been inspired by the example of Tunisia, where veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee last month.

But many other Egyptians have more respect for Mubarak and seem willing to let him depart more gracefully in due course.

Many fear anarchy. The secular-minded share concerns in the West, and in Israel, about the Muslim Brotherhood taking over.

Egypt, the most populous Arab state, is one the few to have made peace with Israel, whose prime minister has warned that revolution in Cairo could create an Iranian-style theocracy.

Egyptian health minister Ahmed Samih Farid told state television six people had died and 836 were wounded in fighting which first erupted on Wednesday. He said most of the casualties were due to stone throwing and attacks with metal rods and sticks.

Hundreds of those protesting in the square wore bandages and other signs of being hurt. Mohamed al-Samadi, a doctor who had been treating people complained the troops were not helping.

"When we come here, they search us for weapons, and then they let armed thugs come and attack us," he said. "We refuse to go. We can't let Mubarak stay eight months."

An estimated 150 people have been killed so far and there have been protests across the country. United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said up to 300 people may have died.

Oil prices have climbed on fears the unrest could spread to other authoritarian Arab states including oil giant Saudi Arabia or interfere with oil supplies from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.

Brent crude surpassed $103 a barrel on Thursday. The cost to lenders of insuring loans to the Egyptian government against it defaulting rose slightly but was lower than earlier this week.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of pro-and anti-government protesters squared off in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Opponents want a change in government and say President Ali Abdullah Saleh's offer on Wednesday to step down in 2013 was not enough.

Some analysts suggested the violence could encourage a backlash against Mubarak both internationally and among those Egyptians who had accepted his pledge to step down in September.

But others feared he could either cling on to power, or hand over to a military ruler without allowing fair elections.