Cairo: Tens of thousands of Egyptians prayed in Cairo's Liberation Square on Friday for an immediate end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, hoping a million more would join them in what they called the "Day of Departure".
"Leave! Leave! Leave!" they chanted after bowing in prayer and listening to a cleric declare "We want the head of the regime removed". He praised the "revolution of the young".
The United States, long the ally and sponsor of the 82-year-old former general and his politically influential army, was also working behind the scenes to have him hand over power.
Mubarak says he is willing to retire but, having spent three decades portraying himself as a bulwark against radical Islam in the most populous Arab state, he has warned of chaos if he goes now.
Doubtless fuelling Western - and Israeli - concerns about the rise of the Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood in any free Egyptian election, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed what he called an "Islamic liberation movement" across the Arab world, and urged Egypt's army to turn on Israel.
In Cairo, where protesters have come from a mix of secular and religious inspiration, many joined in repeating the Muslim rallying call on Friday of "Allahu akbar!", or God is greatest.
In Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, the focus of protests and of violent clashes with Mubarak loyalists in the previous two days, there was a festive atmosphere, with soldiers keeping order and the veteran defence minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, paying a visit and talking to his soldiers.
"Today is the last day, today is the last day!" protesters shouted as Arabic pop songs blared from a bank of speakers and military helicopters clattered overhead. Ambulances stood by.
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