A wave of uprisings in Arab countries is a sign of an "Islamic awakening" which was envisaged when the 1979 Iranian revolution took place, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday.

"Today's events in North Africa, Egypt and Tunisia and some other countries have different meanings for us," Khamenei, the commander-in-chief and spiritual guide of Iran, said in a sermon at Tehran university during the Muslim weekly prayers.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, said Friday he might run for his country's presidency but stressed he thought President Hosni Mubarak would remain in power until September.

"I do not think he (Mubarak) will leave. I think he will stay until the end of August," he told France's Europe 1 radio.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday in an interview with ABC television that he wants to leave office, but fears there will be chaos if he resigns.

The beleaguered Egyptian leader said he was "fed-up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot … for fear that the country would sink into chaos," ABC's Christiane Amanpour reported after their 20-minute interview in Cairo.

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman said on Thursday that neither President Hosni Mubarak nor his son Gamal, who was widely seen as a possible successor, will run in the upcoming presidential elections in September, state media reported.

Earlier Thursday, Suleiman called on security authorities to release detained protesters "not involved in criminal acts," state news agency MENA said.

New Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq on Thursday apologized for deadly unrest between supporters and foes of President Hosni Mubarak on Cairo's Tahrir Square, state television reported.

"I offer all my apologies for what happened yesterday and there will be an inquiry," Shafiq told state television as the fighting on Tahrir Square raged for a second day with at least seven people dead.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told U.S. diplomats in 2009 that neighboring Iran and Syria were providing weapons to insurgent groups within Iraq, a leaked document showed Thursday.

Maliki's comments to then-U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Christopher Hill came in the midst of a year-long diplomatic row with Damascus that prompted both Iraq and Syria to withdraw their respective ambassadors, while U.S. officials have long alleged that Iran backs militia groups operating inside Iraq.

Gunmen firing on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square killed four people on Thursday as the thousands demanding President Hosni Mubarak go stood firm in their increasingly bloody 10-day revolt.

"All (four) were killed by gunshot, with one hit in the head," said Dr. Mohammed Ismail, at a makeshift clinic in Abdulmenem Riad Square, next to Tahrir (Liberation) Square, taking the death toll over the past 24 hours to seven.

Tens of thousands of protesters massed on Thursday at Sanaa university for a "day of rage" against Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule, while a similar number of loyalists flooded a central square in support of the embattled Yemeni president.

With Saleh supporters, some of them armed, taking over Al-Tahrir square from Wednesday night, protest organizers were forced to change the planned venue of their demonstration.

Anti-government protests that have shaken Egypt must end before talks with the opposition can start, Vice President Omar Suleiman said Wednesday, calling on protesters to respect a curfew and go home.

Suleiman, the veteran intelligence chief appointed to the office of vice president last week, urged demonstrators to respect an earlier call from the Egyptian army and return to their homes, state media said.

World powers said Wednesday that the transition towards democracy in Egypt must begin immediately and called for calm amid clashes in Cairo after Hosni Mubarak vowed to cling to office until September.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called attacks on peaceful protestors "unacceptable" as pro- and anti-Mubarak demonstrators fought each other in the city's central Tahrir Square, leaving at least 500 injured.