Embattled President Hosni Mubarak appeared to be on the brink of stepping down Thursday as thousands of anti-regime protesters massed excitedly in Cairo's central Tahrir Square amid rumours he would go.
State television said Mubarak would address the nation later Thursday and the military announced it would respond to the "legitimate" demands of the people in a statement seen as indicating it was ready to fill the vacuum.
Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of Egyptian workers striking nationwide had swelled the protesters' ranks on the eve of Friday's Muslim day of prayers, when protest groups had urged millions to turn out in what could be the biggest show of defiance yet.
A security official confirmed union reports that thousands of employees in the public sector were staging strikes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the canal city of Suez and elsewhere on the north coast and the Red Sea.
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