Egyptian protesters rally outside presidential palace, calling on Morsi to leave

CAIRO - Several hundreds opponents of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi gathered Friday outside the presidential palace in Cairo, demanding him to resign and leave office.

The angry protesters were prevented from approaching the palace by barbed wires, shouting "Down with Muslim Brotherhood rule!" and "Open! Open!" while attempting in vain to break through the barbed wires into the palace.

"We're here to put an end to the Muslim Brotherhood's rule as they want Egypt to be like Iran," Rafaat Mohamed, an engineer, told Xinhua.

Another protester, Mohamed Youssef, said "I demand termination of the constitutional declaration, dissolution of the constituent assembly and departure of Morsi and his group."

Almost all protesters agree that Morsi's Thursday speech was " disappointing" although he invited all opposition forces for dialogue.

Morsi delivered a speech on Thursday night after bloody clashes between his opponents and supporters outside the presidential palace killed six and injured around over 1,000.

He invited opposition for dialogue at the presidential palace on Saturday, which was rejected by the opposition who wanted Morsi to freeze the constitutional declaration before any negotiations.

"The constitutional declaration issued by Morsi grants him sweeping powers and paves the way for a new dictator," Rola, a female protester, told Xinhua.

As protests were going on outside the presidential palace, the iconic Tahrir Square downtown Cairo received marches from different areas to push Morsi to give up his controversial declaration.