Protesters rejected Sharaf's statement on state television, in which he also said he had asked Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy to speed up measures to restore security and order in Egypt, and threatened to continue their demonstration.

Four days of protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square have brought traffic in the heart of the capital to a standstill.

Separate protests by hundreds of people were also under way in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the city of Suez. Many Egyptians say remnants of the ex-president Hosni Mubarak's regime in the police and judiciary are trying to delay trials of those accused of crimes before the January 25 uprising.

Sharaf said he had decided to "conduct a cabinet reshuffle within a week to achieve the objectives of the revolution." Some cabinet members, mainly technocrats, were appointed in the last days of Mubarak's rule.

Sharaf said he had also decided to reshuffle provincial governors to meets public aspirations.

Protesters who listened to Sharaf's speech on loudspeakers at Tahrir Square immediately rejected his gesture.

Protests on July 11 extended demonstrations for swifter reforms that began on July 8. Some protesters have camped out in Tahrir, erecting tents and canopies on traffic islands in the square.