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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> after a week of protests, egypt's president mubarak says he'll step down but only after elections in september. >> my first responsibility right now is to regain calm and stability in our home country. to ensure the peaceful transition of leadership. >> tens of thousands remain on the streets, opposition leader says it's too little too late. president obama says he's spoken to the egyptian leader, urging him to recognize the need for change. >> when i -- what i indicated tonight to president mubarak. it's my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must be -- must begin now. >> as people power transforms egypt's political landscape, leaders across the middle east brace themselves. could they be next?

>> hello and welcome to bbc news. after 30 years in power, president hosni mubarak has told the egyptian people that he won't be standing in the country's elections in september. his statement came after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to demand his resignation. speaking on state television, he said he'd ask parliament to introduce political and economic reforms and wanted to see a peaceful transition of power. >> right now is to regain calm and stability in our home country, to ensure the peaceful transition of leadership and to

ensure that the responsibility goes very peacefully to whoever the people of egypt choose in the next election. i did not intend to stand against -- i am now very determined to make sure that whatever that i do i finish my duty keeping the peace in egypt. >> hosni mubarak making his statements, however there are signs that his gesture won't satisfy the international community or his opponents within egypt.

in central cairo, his address was met with jeers by many quarters. >> 15 years ago, it is enough. it is enough. >> if we accept this, he will change in the next few months. i don't want him anymore. >> we would stay here to -- until he will leave. leave. just leave. >> president obama made a statement from the white house about the developing situation. he said an orderly transition to free and fair elections must begin now. >> we have spoken out on behalf of the need for change. after his speech tonight, i spoke directly to president mubarak. he recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable. and that a change must take place. indeed all of white house are privileged to serve in -- all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our

people. through thousands of years egypt has noun many moments of transformation. the voices of the egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments. this is one of those times. now, it is not the rule of any other country to determine egypt's leaders. only the egyptian people can do that. what is clear and what i indicated tonight to president mubarak is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now. furthermore, the process must include a broad spectrum of egyptian voices and opposition parties. it should lead to elections that are free and fair. and it should result in a government that's not only grounded in democratic principles but is also responsive to the aspirations of the egyptian people.

throughout this process the united states will continue to extend the hand of partnership and friendship to egypt. and we stand ready to provide any assistance that is necessary to help the egyptian people as they manage the aftermath of these protests. >> barack obama speaking earlier. president mubarak's announcement came after days of mass protests across egypt that culminated on tuesday in one million people converging in die row. here's a look at the day's momentous events. >> civilians and soldiers were indiana hand as they channeled the crowds through identity checks at the entrance to the square. more and more it looks as if they're on the same side. the plan was to put a million people onto the streets in cairo it was probably in the hundreds of thousands, but more than the numbers what matters is who they were. an old soldier with his uniform , supporters of the muslim brotherhood and secular young

men who wanted to turn it into a party. a lot here though didn't feel like dancing. he was one of the 300 estimated by the u.n. to have been killed in the protests. >> my son. they killed him. mubarak. they kill our kids, they kill our boys. >> they played the national anthem and sang it. they were patriotic chants and victory ones about the president. they called him a zionist and a collaborator with the americans. their medge was very clear, he has to go, but weren't sure it was getting through.

do you think mubarak's watching this on tv? what do you think he's thinking? >> he's thinking, get me this guy. let's put him in prison forever. let's mike shaur that we abuse his family and neighbors. how does it come about for an egyptian to be saying these things publicly on tv. everybody has fear inside but it's about time now that we have to come out and speak out. >> seven days ago nobody imagined a gathering like this would be possible. president mubarak has lost control of the center of his capitol city. he can't tell the army to take these people out because it's already said that it's here to protect them and that the people's grievances are legitimate. a week ago president mubarak was still all powerful in egypt. now he doesn't have many friends left. all kinds of egyptians have come to protest in the square. but once again today it felt a little more religious. many egyptians are peist

muslims and political islam has deep roots here. president mubarak's friends, especially the israelis, feel that eif egyptians get the chance of a free election, islamists might win it. >> they have the right to be voted. we certainly have the right to elect whomever we want. i don't think they need to be worried. but the bottom line is that we should have the right to elect whomever we choose. >> plenty was still arriving in the square as people began to leave. some worrying about the seed of change, predicting that the president would opt to go, just not immediately. >> he needs to end now. i am going to leave. i am going to leave, just please, give me -- i'm asking for five more months. you've waited 30 years, you can wait five more months. >> do you think people would accept that? >> this is the problem. i do not think the majority of people will accept that.

>> an evening chill, there was stillas an optimistic glow but they might be starting to realize that overthrowing an authortarian arab president is not that easy. >> earlier i spoke to ben lung, a freelance journal whoist is living and working in cairo. he's been following events over the last few days. i often watch what people have been saying about a possible successor. >> this afternoon i was speaking to some 20-year-olds at the demonstration and the name popped up over and over again as one of the previous contributors had said, the secretary general of the arab league, he can't really declare his presidency until now because as the arab league secretary whose headquarters is just around the corner from the square, it would have been unthinkable for him to say he'll be challenging mubarak

for the presidency on egyptian soil. so now that mubarak has indicated what he will do in september, i think the momentum will go behind him because there are questions about others, that he's never really in egypt. another opposition leader, they say he's too proamerican -- pro-american and another tainted by his israeli ties and also his ties to mubarak. so moussa could be the man to watch. >> and then president mubarak saying that he will serve out his term until september. that's quite a long time from now. what do you see happening from now until then? >> i'm fearful for egypt. i'm not saying this as a scare mongering because on a very simple terms, investors who had taken all the money out last week won't come back until

after the election and that's in the election goes well -- if the election goes well because the situation is so precarious. tourists, again, they probably won't want to risk it. they might just go to the red sea but cairo and alexandra could be -- they might try to avoid that. so it could be devastating for the people working around the pyramids or around the sites and hotels here as well which is going to be terrible for them. but i fear for a campaign of purgers or punishments against people who have spoken out against mubarak from lawyers to judges, activists, human rights activists as well. and also journalists, they may be expelled or incarcerated or tortured. so i do think it could be -- i do think this protest has been a kneejerk reaction to the to you initialan uprising tanned may have happened eight months

too early. >> do you think, ben, then in that case that this momentum, the protests, that they will stop, that people will get fired -- tired, will want some kind of nor malt to resume? they'll go back to worm and -- work and then effectively this will all be over and it won't have really had the impact that the people will have been hoping for? >> well very much so. i think this is tied into the previous question. mubarak is still the president. he could do whatever he wants for the next eight months. so he could -- or seven months. he could stifle the people here by cutting off electricity and gas and water. i mean, these are extreme measures, but you can never count them against a dictator. meanwhile people are already -- the older generation are already talking about going back to work because they need to earn money whereas the young are, you know, they're very, very passionate about out ofing this leader and now they've had a taste of activism and they've come so close.

this friday will be the big test. you see who's deserted the protests and who is still there and that could be the core of the activist vism from now on. >> -- activism from now on. >> you can follow the events unfolding in egypt and throughout the region at any time on our website, there you'll find analysis and comments from our correspondents on the ground and our interactive map will link you to the protest flashpoints across the country. before the president's address, we spent time with the thousands of protesters in cairo's square listening to their concerns. >> they came from all over cairo, converging on liberation square. hoping it would live up to its name. and some came from much further afield. >> this gentleman has shown me his british passport. he said he's just flown in to be here. why is it so important that

you're here today? >> i wanted to be with my brothers and sisters. the children, the people, all the people that have suffered during mubarak's terms, for 30 years. >> this uprising has given space to those whose voices have not always been heard. we're all egyptians, she says. women, men and children. we all represent the country equally. young and old, rich and poor, they were all here. even the children have a message for the president. go away, they shout. you've only got to be here for a few minutes and you get that sense of elation, the ability to speak out for the first time in, what, 30 years or so. and take a look at this, you've got those flowers given as a gift probably to the soldiers and down here you've got a sweet stand, a traditional sweet stand. this is part rebellion but it's also part festival. this was a show of unity, all

want president mubarak to go but some are more forgiving than others. >> thank you what you did good or wrong. thank you. now you're a very old man. go and rest. leave us alone. >> whether they're christian or muslim, they may agree on replacing the president but it's not at all clear that they agree on what should come after. >> reporting from cairo where he joins the protesters ahead of president mubarak's speech. this is bbc news d. after a week of protests, egypt's president has said he'll step down but only after elections in september. president obama says he's spoken to the egyptian leader, urging him to recognize the needs for change. well, earlier i spoke to our correspondent and i put to to

him that obama's statement didn't go as fars to say that president mubarak should step down. >> essentially the white house has got what it wanted when it sent an envoy to speak to president mubarak, for him to say he will not seek re-election later this year but some here in washington are already wondering, does that go far enough? or is something further required? particularly when they see those images of people still in the zware, many, many hours after president mubarak's remarks in the middle of the night in cairo. so it was a fairly nuanced, fairly balanced statement that we got from barack obama. on the one hand saying that he wants to see immediate action from president mubarak, meaningful, peaceful change involving a range of voices, the president said, involving opposition parties in egypt. and then in the next breath there was this kind of slightly indecipherble message, i think, to the people of egypt, barack obama says, i believe you will determine your own destiny.

these are difficult days, there are many unanswered questions, but the people of egypt will find those answers. and i think there were maybe a few raised eyebrows. what exactly does he mean by that? does he encourage them to protest further, to push for more change? or is he saying, have faith in the process, in the transition? because i, as an outside observer, am a kind of guarantor of that protest. >> washington in such a difficult position because president mubarak has been such a key ally and yet washington, the united states, are all about freedom of speech. it's so difficult for president obama to say the right thing. >> and barack obama knows that president mubarak is clearly angry. he feels somehow cheated. that was apparent from his carefully worded statements. and a white house spokesman describing the 30-minute conversation between the two men, telephone call, proceded barack obama's statement as direct and frank. so, you know, coming from press

, you know that was a heated conversation. it is difficult for the americans. they don't want to be seen to interfere, they don't want to be seen to force a change of government. that would alarm other allies that they have in the region. but nor do they want to be seen to prop up somebody who many of mr. mubarak's critics are calling a dictator. it's difficult. until now the white house has watched, waited, kind of rolled with the situation as it's evolved and i suspect they'll continue to do that over the coming days. >> steve kingston in washington. i also spoke to a professor from the center for contemporary arab studies at georgetown university. i asked him if what president mubarak was offering was enough? >> certainly too little too late. if he would have presented his resignation or presented the pledge not to run again for re-election a week ago or so it might have been acceptable. but i think it is beyond that, it's too late now. there's something else, also. i think people don't believe

that if he were to stay in office that there would be reform, that he wouldn't somehow manage to subvert the process. so there's a great deal of skepticism and lack of credibility. >> do you think that somebody who is as proud as president mubarak would just simply walk away? would go like, say, maybe the president of to you initialia has done? >> well, i don't think really -- i mean certainly pride is part of the reason he's staying there. but i think if the protesters overwhelm the state, i think that his advisors, the newly appointed vice president, the minister of defense, the new prime minister, they would have to say to him that, you know, the regime is in danger, that their lives are in danger or maybe they would take action upon themselves and remove him. >> and what do you think -- what do you make of president obama's speech? because he says that egypt must

go to change in an orderly fashion, in a peaceful manner, that change must begin now. but he's not really -- he didn't say specifically that president mubarak must go right now. >> well, that's correct. it was a forceful speech and there were some things that -- in the speech that were very good. president obama talked about the united states' commitments to a free information, a criticism of the closing of the internet and so on. the right to peaceful assembly, he praised the egyptian army and importance that they play and so on for not harming the protesters or using violence. and he said that the u.s. wants to see change immediately but again that is different than saying president mubarak needs to resign right now. >> the professor from georgetown university. well, the protest that started in tunisia and now shaking egypt have also reached jordan. the king has dismissed his cabinet and appointed a new prime minister after large demonstrations there.

the new prime minister has been charged with carrying out true political reform. we're in the jordanian capital. >> for weeks the opposition here have been protesting on the streets and they have been calling for a number of things, primarily for the prime minister to go. they also want political reform and they want the country's high levels of unemployment and poverty to be urgently addressed. now, king abdullah has accepted the need for the first of those demands. today he sacked his government, removed the prime minister and appointed another prime minister in his place. some opposition members have said there should be time to see if that prime minister can do the job. however, the islamist members of the opposition have said that they will not accept the new prime minister and they have pledged to continue with their gatherings, their protests, the next of which is scheduled to happen here on wednesday afternoon.

it has to be stressed, the protests here are nothing like on the scale of what we are seeing in egypt. the demonstrations at their maximum have numbered several thousand. although there is the potential for them to grow in number and that's because there's a large number of impoverished people in this country who are getting increasingly concerned about their dier economic state -- dire economic state and the islamist movement could be swelled, if you like, by some of those people. it's a general fear amongst some, i was speaking also a few hours ago to a member of the inner circle of the late king hussein and he said it was possible that those protests could get bigger because of. that but he doesn't believe that jordan is going to go in the same way as egypt. he doesn't believe that the king will be overthrown. in fact, the opposition has made it clear that the king is

not their target. so in that sense jordan looks relatively stable. however, a word of warning. from that member of the late king hussein's inner circle, he fears a more general destabilization of the arab world and countries like jordan if the mubarak transition is not handled correctly. >> let's get a final thought on egypt. a protester who's been threw for the last few days and is camping out tonight. she gave us the latest on the atmosphere in the square. >> atmosphere is -- [inaudible] people are camping out. they're singing, they're planning for much to happen. >> are you proud of what you've achieved so far? >> not yet. we are in general, but we still think there's a lot to do. >> do you think president mubarak has done enough by saying that he will go in september?

>> definitely not. he has done nothing but promise stuff to be done in the future which is the same thing that he has been doing for 30 years. >> so what do you want to see him do? because of course he's trying to walk away with dignity, with some self-respect. what do you in the square want to see him do? >> well, we dind of expected some -- kind of expected some apology to be made in the speech today for all the corruption and injustice that happened in the past. and we also thought we should expect an apology for all the brutality and the crimes committed against people for the past eight years. we have almost 150 people killed by police and many people injured in the hospitals right now. and these crimes were committed by mubarak's regime. >> do you honestly think that

somebody like president mubarak would give that you kind of apology? >> what we are doing right now is actually forcing him to do so. and pressuring him to admit he has messed up. >> some say it has been campaigning at the square. now let's get a reminder of those main headlines. the egyptian president hosni mubarak has said he'll step down from power but not until the end of his current term. international address aimed at defusing mass protests demanding his resignation, mr. mubarak said he would not stand in elections due in september. but he also criticized the protests saying they've been manipulated by political forces and endangered egypt's stability. president mubarak's speech got a hostile reaction from the hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in the center of cairo. on tuesday, unprecedented mass demonstrations have been held across egypt, demanding mr. mubarak's immediate departure. you're watching bbc news d.

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