Egypt's interim head of state has set a speedy timetable for elections to drag the Arab world's biggest country from crisis, after the military ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsy last week sparked a wave of bloody protests. A decree issued by Adly Mansour on Monday pointed to a parliamentary ballot within about six months with a presidential vote to follow. However, it was faulted for repeating flaws in the 2011 transition plan that contributed to the current crisis. Mansour decreed that Egypt will hold new parliamentary elections once amendments to its suspended constitution are approved in a referendum - a process that could take about six months, less than some people had expected. In what appeared to be an olive branch to Islamists, the decree included controversial language put into the constitution last year that defined the principles of Islamic sharia law. Whether that will be enough to lure back the hardline Islamist Nour Party, which had supported the military-led transition plans until Monday's attack, remains to be seen. Nathan Brown, a leading expert on Egypt's constitution at George Washington University in Washington, said that while Monday's decree laid out a clear sequence for transition, it repeated many of the mistakes of the post-Mubarak process. "It was drawn up by an anonymous committee; it was issued by executive fiat; the timetable is rushed; the provisions for consultation are vague; and it promises inclusiveness but gives no clear procedural guidelines for it," he told Reuters. The Brotherhood movement has refused to have anything to do with the process, and thousands of supporters have camped out in northeast Cairo for the last five days and vowed not to budge until Mursi returns as president - a seemingly vain hope. The events have worried Western allies. The United Nations said it was "gravely concerned" about mounting violence in Egypt and said the country was on a "precarious path." "The Secretary-General condemns these killings and calls for them to be thoroughly investigated by independent and competent national bodies," it said in a statement. The United States, still refraining from calling the military intervention a "coup" - a label that would trigger legal obstacles to continuing aid payments - called on Egypt's army to exercise "maximum restraint." The White House said it was not about to halt aid to Egypt. The Egyptian military, recipient of $1.3 billion a year from Washington, has insisted that the overthrow was not a coup and that it was enforcing the "will of the people" after millions took to the streets on June 30 to call for Morsy's resignation.
