CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood has reached some agreements with the army on the powers that Egypt's first Islamist president will hold and the fate of the dissolved Islamist-led parliament, Brotherhood officials said on Tuesday. The newly elected president, Mohamed Mursi, toured his palace on Monday. But after savouring the victory that installed him in place of the Brotherhood's ousted enemy Hosni Mubarak, he immediately went to see the generals in the Defence Ministry in a visit that seemed to underline who really calls the shots. Mursi, seeking to fulfill a promise of inclusive government, will name six vice-presidents - a woman, a Christian and others drawn from non-Brotherhood political groups -to act as an advisory panel, said Sameh Essawi, an aide to the president. Mursi has resigned as head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party to be a "president for all Egyptians" but critics question his independence from the movement's opaque leadership. The party appointed Essam el-Erian as its interim leader on Tuesday to replace him. The Brotherhood, banned under Mubarak, sent its supporters onto the streets last week to protest after the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the lower house dissolved, saying rules had been broken during its election six months ago. That decision, backed by the army, threatened to force a new parliamentary election, which could erode the large bloc won by the Brotherhood and its allies, and undermine one of the biggest gains of the revolt that toppled Mubarak last year. Islamists and others said this amounted to a military coup. The army compounded these fears by issuing a decree curbing the president's powers just as the election closed. Mursi was declared the winner on Sunday, a nail-biting week after voting ended. During the wait, the Brotherhood and the army held discreet talks, officials on both sides said. The new president will be sworn in on Saturday, probably before the Constitutional Court. The Brotherhood will also stage a symbolic swearing-in ceremony in Tahrir Square. Presidents were previously sworn in by parliament, which is now shuttered and under military guard. The presidential election has set the stage for a tussle between the military, which provided Egypt's rulers for six decades, and the Brotherhood, the traditional opposition - sidelining secular liberals who drove the anti-Mubarak uprising.
