Egyptian cabinet officially resigns

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is clinging to power as protesters take to the streets again to demand his resignation.

Mubarak ordered troops and tanks into the capital Cairo and other cities overnight and imposed a curfew in an attempt to quell demonstrations that have shaken the Arab world's most populous nation, a key US ally, to the core.

Government buildings, including the ruling party headquarters, are still on fire after being set alight by demonstrators who defied the curfew.

Cairo is strewn with wreckage from a day of protests in which tens of thousands of people called for an end to Mubarak's 30-year-rule, an unprecedented turn of events in the tightly-controlled country.

Egypt's outgoing cabinet has met to formally submit its resignation, after Mubarak told the government to quit in the wake of the protests.

But about 2,000 demonstrators have gathered in Cairo's central Tahrir Square to press their demands that he quit, the first clear indication that those behind the street action were not satisfied by his remarks.

The armed forces have told Egyptians not to gather in groups and to observe a curfew that was imposed in a bid to end protests that have gripped the country calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak's rule.

It's reported that at least 20 bodies have been found in the city of Alexandria, adding to more than 20 confirmed dead on Friday.

The demonstrators, many of them young urban poor and students, complain of repression, corruption, and economic despair under Mubarak, who has held power since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers.

The deployment of army troops to back up the police showed that Mubarak still has the support of the military, the country's most powerful force. But any change of sentiment among the generals could seal his fate.