EGYPT: ElBaradei says Mubarak needs to leave now, hand power to caretakers

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Egyptian diplomat and emerging opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei told news networks Tuesday that President Hosni Mubarak didn’t go far enough to appease demonstrators with his promise not to seek reelection in the fall.

Protesters have been demanding an end to Mubarak’s 30-year rule and met his vow to fulfill his current term in office with shouts of ‘Leave, leave!’ Tens of thousands remained in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square to listen to the president’s address after more than 200,000 marched in demand of his ouster earlier in the day.

In interviews reported by CNN and the Al Arabiya networks, ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the U.N. nuclear energy agency, said the 82-year-old Egyptian president needs to leave now and hand power over to a caretaker government.

CNN quoted ElBaradei as saying Mubarak’s statement that he wouldn’t run again was ‘a trick’ to remain in power but one that was unlikely to placate Egyptians demanding democratic reforms and a new leadership to direct them.

ElBaradei, head of the opposition force calling itself the National Assn. for Change, told Al Arabiya that the immediate departure of Mubarak wouldn’t create a power vacuum and suggested that his continuing in office could further destabilize the country.

-- Carol J. Williams