EU wants reform but stops short of calling on Mubarak to resign

EU ministers, afraid that extremists could take over in Egypt, have called for democratic reforms in the country, paving the way for free and fair elections but have not demanded that President Hosni Mubarak resigns.

The big three EU countries were divided on a response, with Germany wanting to say that the 82-year-old president should leave office as the demonstrators, now in their eighth day on the streets, are demanding.

But France was more interested in calling for elections while Britain, following the line of the United States, favoured calling for more time and space to be given to the regime that the US supports with huge sums of money and military aid.