Egypt Govt-Opposition Talks Fail to Move Protesters

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman and opposition leaders have agreed on setting upa joint committee tasked with suggesting constitutional amendments. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Egypt has entered its 14th day of protests, as talks between the government and opposition groups on tackling the country's political crisis failed to succeed.

The government has offered a series of concessions, including some that could bring dramatic change to the country, but the opposition said they were not enough.

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman and some opposition members have agreed on limited steps to resolve the crisis, which paralyzed the country and left some 300 people dead.

The agreed solution was for setting up a joint committee of judicial and political figures that will have to recommend by the first week of March constitutional changes needed for free and fair elections, Suleiman said in a statement.

However, opposition leaders said they were skeptical of the government's motives and that the measures did not go far enough.

Leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, who sent a representative to meet Suleiman, has proposed a one-year transitional period where Egypt would be run by a three-member presidential council as it prepared for elections.

According to the BBC, on Monday demonstrators, who have occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square, said they will leave only if President Hosni Mubarak agrees to step down.

The President, who has been running the country for 30 years, has so far refused to resign.

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