BBC LIVE UPDATES IN EGYPT (all times GMT)

Live coverage

08h54: The BBC's Lyse Doucet tweets: "Tahrir Square feels different every day. At Qasr Nil entrance long orderly queues r back -&extend on the bridge #jan25 #egypt"

08h44: Defence Minister Tantawi and other top military officials are visiting Cairo's Tahrir Square, Reuters reports.

08h40: For those not already familiar with the geography around Tahrir Square, take a look at the BBC website's latest graphic of the area.

08h32: Silawa, writing for the Arabist blog, observes that away from Tahrir Square, the regime's information management skills have succeeded in influencing the views of Egyptian people since protests began: "I spent yesterday speaking to people along some of the rural stretches the Cairo-Alex agricultural road. Almost everyone I spoke to was pro-Mubarak. They seemed to have been genuinely moved by Mubarak's resignation speech. They felt sorry for an old man humiliated. They were against corruption, sure, but wasn't that just bad ministers? Clearly the ministers were misleading the president. Couldn't everything be solved by a cabinet shuffle? Why should a man who served his country for 30 years, keeping the country out of wars, be sent away?"

08h26: Mona, an activist for human rights in Cairo, says: "This country will descent into civil war or chaos if Mubarak doesn't leave now - the Egyptian people deserve a fresh start and chance for democracy, and cannot forget the destruction and bloodshed over the last few days. Mubarak has never run a democratic election before and has lied and manipulated them, hence the need for the uprising. It is obvious to more and more Egyptians that he cannot be trusted, and now his thugs and supporters will be unleashed on the peaceful protestors while the world can't see what is going on. If Mubarak cared about this country, he would leave now!"

08h21: Dentist Wael Hassan, who's been delivering medicine to Tahrir Square, gives another update on the situation this morning: "I saw loads of medical supplies... But still it's very primitive, it's only providing first aid for the injured." He adds that the "confrontation last night was much less than the night before" and that now, "spirits are very high" in the square.

08h18: More from the BBC's Jim Muir in Tahrir Square: "The mood here is very relaxed. Some sitting in sunshine, some sleeping. The fear of imminent attack has eased."

08h15: The BBC's Jim Muir in Tahrir Square says the ground is covered in rubble in the aftermath of yesterday's clashes. Army now has a thick presence on the ground. It is establishing a clear defensive cordon on the perimeter of the square, but is letting people in. Pro-Mubarak groups seem to have disappeared - at least for the time being.

08h14: And here's the New York Times piece that says the Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice-President Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military

08h08: There's more on the evolving position of the US in this blog entry by the BBC's Americas editor Mark Mardell. "The White House is preparing, in great detail, for a world after Hosni Mubarak," he says.

08h01: Sandmonkey tweets: "There is a new wave of McCarthyism in Egypt: anyone can be a spy now, and all foreigners on the street are considered as such #jan25."

07h58: While Christiane Amanpour was at the presidential palace, she also got a chance to talk to Vice-President Suleiman. He told her that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had not asked for Mr Mubarak to resign, and said that the Egyptian president was "a fighter" who had lived and would die on Egyptian soil. Here's her account of the interview.

07h52: For those who missed it, here's Christiane Amanpour of ABC describing what President Mubarak told her in an interview on Thursday.

07h47: Jonathan Rugman from Channel 4 tweets: "The anti-march to the presidential palace called off, says protest leader, as they focus on a people build-up in iconic Tahrir square."

07h44: The BBC's Wyre Davies in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, says there are many more tanks and soldiers out on the streets today there than there have been before.

07h41: The BBC's Mark Georgiou in Cairo: "Breakfast in a hotel full of journalists from all over the world. Tales of confiscated camera gear and lucky escapes from those who want to stop us doing our jobs. One question comes up over and again: what do you think is going to happen? Will there be blood? Or, by some miracle, will the day pass peacefully? Last Friday, within minutes of prayers ending, it was full-on water cannon, tear gas and riot police charges. It's different now. The pro-democracy movement hold Tahrir Square. It's their turf and not an inch of it will be given up lightly. So, a different question: have the pro-Mubarak side got the numbers and the will to charge the barricades? We'll know in a few hours.

07h36: Nadia El-Awadi tweets: "Getting ready to go to Tahrir. I hope to make today my first in a democratic Egypt."

07h34: One of the stories in Egypt yesterday was the targeting of foreign journalists and human rights activists. As BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reports, this is a situation that is all too familiar for their Egyptian counterparts, who have long suffered at the hands of the security forces.

07h29: Wael Hassan, a dentist who has been delivering medical supplies in central Cairo, tells BBC World: "Tahrir Square is all sealed now, there's only the main entrance open. I see long queues of people waiting to get in, but the army is not letting anyone - they don't know if they are protesters or government thugs." He also said that the understanding today is that government thugs will go inside and try to blend in with protesters and then attack from within.

07h23: The British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla, who's been in Tahrir Square in recent days, has told the BBC that the there are more opposition protesters than ever, even though state TV has been turning people against the demonstrators: "The propaganda that's coming from state television seems to be doing a lot of work and... people here are finding it very hard to get information which is true. People in the square are getting calls from people outside the square who they know, saying 'what are you doing here?' There are even reports we're receiving five star food from the hotels around us, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are giving us all sorts of things, that we are in the pay and get fifty dollars a day from God knows who."

07h17: Abdel-Monem Said Ali, who runs an Egyptian think-tank connected with the governing National Democratic Party, gives the BBC World Service his view of increasingly firm pressure from the US for a transfer of power: "Washington is the last place that can give advice to anybody about political change in any country," he says. "We can look at Iraq and Afghanistan and see what they did with these two countries. Egypt will change, democratise, and be a democratic country within a few months."

07h14: Passent in Egypt says: "As citizens in Egypt, we realise that we need a change, and with the latest changes in the government we will be seeing an improvement. Change needs time. We love our country so let's look after it and not wreck it. We do not want other countries intervening; it is our country and we can solve our own problems. People need to leave Tahrir Square and leave the new government to start work. It is absolutely absurd to ask the president to leave now. We have constitutional changes to be made and this cannot be done without him staying in post."

07h11: Safi in Cairo says: "It's a calm, beautiful morning here in Cairo, a perfect day to celebrate peace, unity and Tahrir (liberation), but also a day to honour our fallen brothers, lest we forget. Many fear clashes today, but people are determined to head out and keep the peace, with expectations of more people out today than last Tuesday's "March of Millions". Now with a few scenarios of transition of power on the table, many here hope that Mubarak finally gets the message this Friday, and departs."

07h09: The BBC's Jon Leyne says those closest to Mr Mubarak - Vice-President Omar Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq - seem unwilling to push him out. At the same time, the opposition appear unwilling to see a government run by anyone associated with the octogenarian president.

07h04: The BBC's Ian Pannell in Cairo describes how things stand: "This morning we are looking out on a scene where the army has come out in considerable force and there are no pro-Mubarak supporters to be seen at this point of time. The whole area occupied by those supporters is pretty much controlled by the military - they have put up cordons and set up barricades and it looks like they mean business about bringing some kind of order to this process.There have been people talking about marching on the presidential palace but I just don't think we are going to see that."

07h01: Mosa'ab Elshamy tweets: "Breakfast now being distributed and shared. Families living in Tahrir are doing an amazing job in their solidarity."

07h00: The BBC's Jon Leyne says it's been a quieter night than previously in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square - the epicentre of the protests - though thousands of people did stay out overnight.

06h57: Today marks the deadline that anti-government protesters set for Mr Mubarak to leaving office. Mr Mubarak says he's fed up - but that stepping down would leave Egypt in chaos. The opposition have called for people to pour out onto the streets again after Friday prayers.

URL du live: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698