Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak tonight said he would not run for another term after hundreds of thousands of people rallied against his regime in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the culmination of a weeklong uprising.
Mr Mubarak said his 30-year rule will end with presidential elections that are due in September, in a statement on state television.
He said he hadn't intended to run for another term and will stay on until the ballot to ensure "stability," adding that laws on the eligibility of candidates and presidential term limits will be revised before the vote.
The country "faces a choice between chaos and stability," Mr Mubarak said. He had previously declined to say whether he would stand again.
Former US ambassador Frank Wisner met Mr Mubarak earlier today and it is understood he conveyed a message from US president Barack Obama that he should not seek another term.
More than 200,000 Egyptians crowded into Tahrir Square in central Cairo today. Some 20,000 others marched in the eastern city of Suez. Demonstrations were also held in Alexandria on the north coast, Ismailia and cities in the Nile Delta such as Tanta, Mansoura and Mahalla el-Kubra.
Across the country the numbers expressing their anger with Mr Mubarak and his ministers hit the million mark that activists wanted, according to estimates.
"Mubarak wake up, today is the last day," they shouted in Alexandria.
The scenes in Tahrir Square, which has become a rallying point for protests over poverty, repression and corruption, were in sharp contrast to Friday when police beat, teargassed and sprayed water cannon on protesters.
"He goes, we are not going," chanted a crowd of men, women and children as a military helicopter hovered over the sea of people, many waving Egyptian flags and banners.
Soldiers, some perched atop armoured vehicles defaced with anti-Mubarak graffiti, smiled and nodded as protesters punched the air and shouted: "The people and the army are hand in hand ... down, down Hosni Mubarak."
A couple of hundred pro-Mubarak supporters gathered near the foreign ministry, a little distance from Tahrir Square. "Yes to Mubarak, No to Elbaradei, No to spies in Egypt," they shouted, their small number serving to highlight his unpopularity.
There had been talk the anti-Mubarak rally would march on the presidential palace today but by early afternoon the crowd showed no sign it was ready to move on.
Initially unorganised, the protests against Mubarak are gradually coalescing into a loose reformist movement encompassing many sections of Egyptian society.
Young unemployed mixed with members of the Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood, and the urban poor held hands in solidarity with doctors and teachers.
"We are calling for the overthrow of the regime. We have one goal, and that is to remove Hosni, nothing else. Our politicians need to step in and form coalitions and committees to propose a new administration," said Ahmed Abdelmoneim (25) a computer
engineer.
Effigies of Mr Mubarak, who like all his predecessors was a senior military officer, were strung up from traffic lights.
Mr Mubarak has not addressed the nation since Friday, when he sacked his cabinet. Yesterday, it was his newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, who announced a call for dialogue with all political forces. Protesters scent victory.
"The revolution won't accept Omar Suleiman, even for a transitional period. We went a new democratic leader," said Mohamed Saber, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"We are very patient, we can stay here a long time ... For the last 30 years this regime brought the worst out of the people. Now everyone is speaking out. Before everyone was negative and passive," said Mahmoud Ali (42) a civil servant.
What will come after Mr Mubarak if he steps down is not so clear. Egypt's opposition has been fragmented and weakened under Mr Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood has the biggest grassroots network with its health and other social charity projects.
The group, banned from politics under Mr Mubarak, says it wants an Islamic, pluralistic and democratic state.
Agencies