US senator John Kerry hailed "quite extraordinary" talks in Egypt on Sunday but called on President Hosni Mubarak to again address his people to clarify the path forward towards democracy. Kerry was speaking after the Egyptian government's chief negotiator, Vice President Omar Suleiman, held landmark talks on Sunday with opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, agreeing to jointly pursue democratic reform.
"I think what we've heard from the news from Egypt about the meetings today with vice president Suleiman is frankly quite extraordinary," the influential chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee told NBC's "Meet The Press."
Kerry said the concessions made by Mubarak over the past 12 days were "a beginning" but urged the Egyptian leader to give his people more clarity about how he intends to hand power over to a new administration.
-- Mubarak should "address the nation to make it clear what the timetable is, precisely what the process is, I think if that happens this could actually turn significantly to the good and to the promise of a better outcome," he said.
-- The Brotherhood, a well-organised Islamist movement, has long been banned from Egyptian politics and Sunday's talks were the first in half a century at which it was officially represented.
-- The state-run MENA news agency said the talks included the Brotherhood, the liberal Wafd party, the left-leaning Tagammu and youth protest groups.
-- Government spokesman Magdi Radi said the parties agreed to form a committee of judges and politicians "to study and propose constitutional amendments and required legislative amendments... by the first week of March."
-- Negotiators also agreed to open an office for complaints about the treatment of political prisoners, loosen media curbs, to lift an emergency law "depending on the security situation" and reject foreign interference.
-- "We ought to be elated that they are in fact sitting down, that the army has restrained itself, that some semblance of order - even as there are protests is being restored to the streets," Kerry said.
-- "I think that can be enhanced significantly if President Mubarak was to state even more clearly what the process of transition will be."
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