Morsi in crisis talks over power seizure

Egypt’s president negotiated with judges yesterday to try to defuse a crisis over his seizure of extended powers which set off violent protests reminiscent of the uprising that thrust his Islamist movement into power.

The justice minister said he thought Mohammed Morsi would agree with a proposal from the highest judicial authority to curb the scope of new powers. Morsi was “very optimistic Egyptians would overcome the crisis”, his spokesman said.

But the protesters, some camped in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, have said only retracting the decree will satisfy them, a sign of the deep rift between Islamists and their opponents that is destabilising Egypt nearly two years after Hosni Mubarak fell.