Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has agreed to discuss reform with opposition parties that are calling for his ouster, his vice president said Monday after the country's powerful military announced it would not attack peaceful anti-government demonstrators.
Speaking on state television, Vice President Omar Suleiman said Mubarak has asked him to start working on "constitutional
reform and legislation" in collaboration with Egypt's various political parties. And Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa called Monday for a peaceful transition of power "from an era to the other," the French news agency AFP reported.
Suleiman, the longtime intelligence chief Mubarak picked as his vice president over the weekend, said a reform package should be drawn up "expeditiously" in conjunction with the country's parliament.
"The other parties will also have a role to play, which will lead to real political reform," Suleiman said.
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Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an iron fist for nearly 30 years. But a wave of protests against his regime erupted following the uprising in Tunisia that ousted its longtime strongman January 14, and demonstrators are defying curfew orders and the tanks deployed on the streets of Cairo and other cities.
Protesters have called for "million-man" marches in Cairo and Alexandria on Tuesday, a week after the historic anti-government protests began. And on the eve of those demonstrations, a military spokesman took to the airwaves to recognize "the legitimate demands of the honest citizens."
"The presence of the armed forces in The Egyptian streets is for your benefit to protect your safety and peace," the unnamed spokesman announced. "Your armed forces will not use violence against this great people, who have always played a significant role in every moment of Egypt's great history."
Mubarak has given no indication that he will bow to the protesters' demands and resign. But he sacked his Cabinet on Saturday, and his designation of Suleiman as vice president marks the first time he has filled that post since he came to power in 1981.
The president charged newly appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq with shaping the Cabinet of his reshuffled government, which will have the goal of restoring national security and Egyptians' faith in their country's economy.
Monday, Mubarak swore in Mahmoud Wagdy as the new interior minister to replace Habib el-Adly, who has been criticized by protesters because of police actions. Others sworn in on Monday were Finance Minister Samir Radwan, a former economist at the International Labor Organization, and Health Minister Ahmed Hosni Farid.
Radwan told CNN's "Quest Means Business" that his priority is "to show that this is a government that responds to the demands -- the fair demands, I would say -- of the people in Tahrir Square."
"We need to use public expenditure to achieve some sort of social justice and a better distribution of the fruits of growth, as to the bottom 40% of this country."
At the same time, he said, Egypt shouldn't sacrifice economic reforms and gains "that enabled it to stand the storm of two successive crises -- the food crisis and the financial crisis."
Meanwhile, there are international indications that the world could accept a changed Egypt without Mubarak.
Asked Sunday on TV whether the Obama administration still backs Mubarak as the legitimate president of Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hedged.
"We have been very clear that we want to see a transition to democracy. And we want to see the kind of steps taken that will bring that about. We also want to see an orderly transition," she said.
She said the United States wants to see a "well-thought-out plan that will bring about a democratic, participatory government."
"I also believe that this is in Egypt's long-term interests. It's in the interest of the partnership that the United States has had with Egypt," she said, noting that the situation is "intensely complex," without "quick yes or no answers."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs similarly called for an "orderly transition" in Egypt, but said it was not Washington's place to support or oppose the possible ouster of the president.
While it was widely believed Mubarak was grooming his son, Gamal, as his successor, that plan now has been complicated by demands for democracy.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is one of several opposition figures whose names surface when protesters talk about possible future leaders of Egypt. Among other names is Moussa, a veteran diplomat who was Mubarak's foreign minister until 2001.
Several opposition movements have been represented on the streets in the demonstrations.
Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd Party, told CNN the group's followers have been "extremely active." He said he hopes opposition forces such as his party can help bring about a peaceful transition of power.
Though the curfew order took effect 3 p.m. (8 a.m. ET,) protesters again ignored the curfew in both Cairo and Alexandria.
In Alexandria, an armored personnel carrier fired warning shots as about 2,000 to 3,000 people gathered. The shots were seen as an apparent effort to intimidate protesters near a hotel.
In Cairo, the crowd has swelled compared with Saturday and Sunday, and people gathered Monday in Tahrir Square, a focal point of the protests. Some of them said they had spent the night. The smell of smoke from campfires lingered in the air.
Police have been virtually absent from the streets since Saturday, after a brutal crackdown a day earlier when thousands of riot and plainclothes police clashed violently with protesters. But police forces were scheduled to start deploying and resuming their duties throughout Egypt on Monday, state-run Nile TV reported.
Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef said the army is controlling the square and checking people's IDs at all entry points. She said there are some police visible in Cairo, such as traffic officers, but no state security police could be spotted downtown.
While it's difficult to ascertain a solid death toll during the violence, Human Rights Watch staffers have confirmed 80 deaths from two hospitals in Cairo, 36 deaths in Alexandria and 13 fatalities in Suez, Morayef said.
The unrest has paralyzed daily life in Egypt.
Many essential supplies are running low, said Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director. Gas stations throughout Cairo and Alexandria were closing because they were out of fuel. The amount of goods in shops were low and many were rationing how much food people could buy.
The Egyptian stock exchange and banks were closed Monday, and the Moody's ratings agency downgraded debt ratings for the country because of the turmoil. Suleiman said the crisis has cost the country an estimated 69 billion Egyptian pounds ($12 billion) and set its economy back six months.
There were long lines in front of bread shops and supermarkets, ATMs and gas stations were closed, and there was a minimal police presence. In one neighborhood of Cairo, however, sanitation workers were seen collecting garbage.
In Alexandria, people waited in long lines outside bakeries and supermarkets. Nile TV set up a hotline for citizens to call in and report bread shortages across the country. A private sanitation company was seen collecting trash there, also.
Shops and businesses were looted and abandoned police stations were stripped clean of their arsenals.
Men with makeshift weapons patrolled neighborhoods, creating checkpoints to fill the void left when police stopped patrolling the streets. The self-appointed defense groups appear to be working closely with the military.
There have been reports of prison breaks, and state-run Nile TV said Monday nearly 2,100 escaped inmates had been arrested.
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network, said six of its journalists arrested in Cairo earlier Monday have been released, but their camera equipment remains seized.
The unrest has prompted evacuations of foreigners. More than 500 Americans have departed on five flights, the State Department said.
A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The dozen or so Marines are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team.
Suez Canal authorities have said operations there are unchanged and the army is in control. However, shipping companies are predicting delays. And Egyptian soldiers are guarding the pyramids in Giza, one of the world's top tourist draws.
Meanwhile, the popular uprising that toppled the Tunisian government before spreading into Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Egypt, may now be headed for Syria. Opposition movements in Syria are calling for mass protests on Saturday against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad.
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