Top brass tours Tahrir Square

Egypt's top general, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, yesterday toured Cairo's Tahrir Square where protesters have been camped out for more than three weeks demanding an immediate end to military rule, state media reported.

The field marshal, who was Hosni Mubarak's defence minister for 20 years, is head of the ruling army council that took control when the former president was ousted by a popular uprising in February.

State-run television and a state-run newspaper said Tantawi made the visit to review traffic flow in the square, a major road hub in Cairo which had been closed to vehicles during the protest until this weekend.

After protesters clashed with police near the square last month, Tantawi announced that presidential elections would be set for June 2012, sooner than an army timetable previously envisaged.