President Hosni Mubarak addressed the Egyptian public just after midnight Friday, promising reforms and pledging to fight poverty and unemployment and to address corruption. “I have asked the government to resign”, he said, promising a new government “tomorrow.”

In an address of about 12 minutes, carried on state television and watched around the world on Al Jazeera, Mubarak said he had been following the mounting demonstrations closely and supported freedom of expression. But he had become concerned, he said, when they threatened Egypt’s stability. “There is a fine line,” he said, “between freedom and chaos.”

‘I have been working day after day for the people of Egypt,” the authoritarian leader insisted. “I understand their suffering.”

The address came after a day of spreading protests that saw such disparate events as demonstrators cheering soldiers in Alexandria and torched buildings – including the headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling party - across Cairo. Crowds in the streets listening on radio began chanting at the end of the speech, calling for Mubarak to step down.

Analysts immediately began to speculate on next developments, but there appears to be general agreement that the president’s speech will do as little to mollify pro-democracy groups as did the national address by President Ben Ali of Tunisia shortly before he fled that country on 14 January . Meanwhile, Internet access and interruptions of cellular phone networks have continued, 12 hours after Egypt "went dark."