Supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi rallied across Egypt Friday, one day after the Islamist leader passed decrees giving himself sweeping new powers, dpa reported.
Morsi defended his decrees in front of thousands of supporters gathered outside his presidential palace in Cairo. He said they were not designed to "settle scores" with the opposition, but to ensure national stability.
"The decisions I took are aimed at achieving political and social stability," Morsi said.
"It is my duty to continue the march of the revolution and to remove obstacles remaining from the hateful past," he added, referring to a popular revolt that deposed former president Hosny Mubarak in February 2011.
Morsi, who became Egypt's first elected civilian president in June, signed on Thursday constitutional amendments making his decrees immune to judicial review.
He also replaced the country's chief prosecutor, appointed under Mubarak, and ordered a retrial for former officials already acquitted of attacking protesters during the revolt against his predecessor.
The United States said the sweeping new powers "raise concerns" and point to the need for a new Egyptian constitution.
"One of the aspirations of the revolution was to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
She said the current constitutional vacuum in Egypt could only be resolved by the adoption of a constitution that includes checks and balances and respects for individual rights and the rule of law.
The statement, which did not mention Morsi by name, encouraged Egyptians to resolve their differences peacefully.
As Morsi was speaking on Friday, police clashed with protesters near Tahrir Square where thousands of his opponents converged, demanding a reversal of the constitutional declaration.
The opposition have called the decrees a "coup against legitimacy," saying they infringe on the judiciary's independence and grant Morsi, who already wields the legislative authority, dictatorial powers.
"The people want the regime's ouster," chanted demonstrators, echoing a slogan that became widely popular in the uprising that forced Mubarak to step down. "Down with Morsi Mubarak," they shouted.
Other protesters chanted slogans against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood Party and, in a sign of unity between Egypt's Muslims and Christian minority, waved copies of both the Quran and Bible.
Prominent dissident Mohammed ElBaradei and former presidential contender Hamdeen Sabahi led a march that commenced from a mosque to Tahrir.
Thursday's decrees make an Islamist-dominated assembly drafting the constitution immune to dissolution, just 10 days before the Supreme Constitutional Court was due to decide on its legality.
Rallies, both opposing and supporting the decrees, were held in the capital Cairo along with other Egyptian cities.
Morsi's backers and his opponents clashed in the Nile Delta of al-Mahla, reported local media. At least 20 people from both sides were injured in the violence in which stones and petrol bombs were exchanged.
There were also reports of clashes in the coastal city of Alexandria, where protesters stormed an office of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and set it ablaze, said a security official.
Another office was attacked in the coastal city of Suez, reported Al Ahram newspaper.
Meanwhile, Samir Morqos, a Christian advisor to Morsi, said he was resigning in protest at the "surprising" decrees.
"I have decided to resign because the president and presidential officials did not inform me of anything about these decrees before they were announced. I learnt about them from television," Morqos said.
Egyptian authorities had tightened security around key state institutions ahead of Friday's rallies.
Military and security forces were deployed outside the parliament building, the cabinet offices and near the Interior Ministry headquarters in central Cairo.
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