Egypt Violence Subsides as Military Warns of 'Disastrous Results' without Dialogue

Calm was restored to Egypt on Saturday as the powerful military threw its weight behind dialogue to resolve the political crisis dividing the nation, warning it would "not allow" events to take a "disastrous" turn.

A mass overnight protest against President Mohammed Morsi ended peacefully, but the underlying political crisis dividing the country persisted.

More than 100 protesters remained outside the presidential palace in Cairo, watched over by soldiers who used tanks and barbed wire to block roads leading to the compound.

Overnight, more than 10,000 people had massed in the palace square in a noisy demonstration, tearing aside a barbed-wire barricade and yelling for Morsi to step down.

The crowd gradually dwindled to a hard core of protesters, repeating a pattern of nightly protests this week that peaked each evening.

But there was no sign of them faltering in their opposition to the Islamist president and the sweeping new powers he decreed for himself last month, or to a controversial draft constitution Morsi is putting to a referendum he has called for December 15.

Although around 2,000 Morsi supporters from the president's Muslim Brotherhood held a rival rally just a few kilometers (miles) away, there was no repeat of the violent clashes between the two sides of Wednesday night. Then, seven people died and more than 640 were hurt.

Since the clashes, Morsi has struck a defiant tone, defending his decree and the referendum.

But his camp has also made some conciliatory gestures to the mainly secular opposition, seen as attempts to de-escalate the confrontation.

Morsi offered to hold talks with the opposition on Saturday, but that was rebuffed by the National Salvation Front coalition ranged against him.

One of the Front's leaders, Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. atomic agency chief and Nobel Peace laureate, stressed late Friday that dialogue could only happen if Morsi agreed to "repeal the decree" and postpone the referendum.

Vice President Mahmoud Mekki said Morsi "could accept to delay the referendum," but only if the opposition guaranteed it would launch no legal challenge to the decision.

Under Egyptian law, a president is compelled to hold a referendum two weeks after formally being delivered its text.

Mekki said early voting for Egyptians overseas that had been scheduled for Saturday had now been pushed back to Wednesday.

And on Saturday, the Cairo prosecutors' office told AFP that all 133 people arrested during Wednesday's clashes had been released.

"The path of dialogue is the best and only way to reach agreement and achieve the interests of the nation and its citizens," said a statement from the armed forces -- the first since street protests against President Morsi erupted more than two weeks ago.

"The opposite of that will take us into a dark tunnel with disastrous results -- and that is something we will not allow."

The statement said the military would maintain its role safeguarding the nation's security, pointedly not taking sides.

"The military establishment stands always with the great Egyptian people and insists on its unity," it said.

"We confirm that we support national dialogue and the path of democracy... to bring together all factions in the country."

The military's refusal to become embroiled in political differences in Egypt recalled its hands-off position during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak early last year.