CAIRO: Tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to military rule packed Cairo’s Tahrir square Friday in the biggest turnout of a week of protests and violence that has killed 41 people.
The military rulers named a veteran former prime minister to head a new civilian Cabinet, but that did little to appease the demonstrators who poured scorn on a name from the past.

The United States, long a bedrock supporter of Egypt’s military, called on the generals to step aside “as soon as possible” and give real power to the new Cabinet “immediately.”
Protesters accuse the military of clinging to power since it took over when an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

Kamal Ganzouri, named by the ruling army council to head a national salvation Cabinet, said his powers were stronger than those given to previous prime ministers, but gave no details.
“I have asked the field marshal to give me a little time so I can form a Cabinet that will satisfy the entire people,” the veteran economist told a news conference, referring to army chief Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi.

He said the new government would not be announced before Monday, the date set for Egypt’s first free parliamentary election in decades, which could be overshadowed if the violence of the past week continues.
Ganzouri, 78, served as prime minister under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999. He was appointed after Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s Cabinet resigned this week amid the protests.

Protesters responded angrily to the naming of a Mubarak-era veteran. After his appointment was confirmed, crowds in Tahrir chanted in derision: “They took out a thief and appointed another thief,” referring to Sharaf and Ganzouri.
Hundreds of protesters shouted “Ganzouri, we don’t want you” outside the Cabinet offices in central Cairo.

Until a truce calmed violence Thursday, streets around Tahrir had become battle zones with stone-throwing protesters fighting police firing tear gas, pellets and rubber bullets, a repeat of the scenes that forced Mubarak from office.

Protesters called for a million-man march on what they dubbed “the Friday of the last chance.”
A steady stream of men, women and children surged into Tahrir before weekly Muslim prayers, often the day of the biggest demonstrations of this year’s Arab Spring uprisings across the region.
But enthusiasm for the protests was not universal.
A crowd of about 5,000 people waving Egyptian flags demonstrated in favor of the military rulers in Cairo’s Abbassiya district.

“The people want the emptying of the square,” shouted the demonstrators, watched by hundreds of people on flyover bridges. A banner read: “Egypt will not be governed from Tahrir square.”
In its strongest statement on Egypt’s turmoil so far, the White House stepped up pressure on the military rulers to speed up the handover to civilian control.

“Full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
“The United States strongly believes that the new Egyptian government must be empowered with real authority immediately.”