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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* NEW: The military can issue new laws during the transition period, it says
* Demonstrators carry officers on their shoulders amid cheers of unity
* Some have vowed to remain in Tahrir Square until civilian rule is implemented
* Egyptians return to work Sunday, the first regular work day since Mubarak resigned

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Egypt’s military dissolved parliament and will run the country for six months or until elections are held, it said in a statement Sunday, two days after President Hosni Mubarak resigned.

It is suspending the constitution and will appoint a committee to propose changes to it, the statement said, adding that the public will then get to vote on the amended constitution.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces can issue new laws during the transition period, according to the statement on state television.

The government is now reporting to the military high command in the same way it reported to Mubarak before he stepped down, the prime minister confirmed shortly before the military statement was read.

The restoration of security and normal life is the government’s priority, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said, as troops began trying to clear protesters from Tahrir Sqaure, the spiritual heart of the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak after 30 years.

That could take time, Shafiq acknowledged in his first comments to the press since Mubarak stepped down.

“The feeling of the lack of security which started when the situation began has to end,” he said. “It will end gradually, but not as fast as we want.”

He also said he was reviewing candidates to fill vacant government ministries, adding that no one who was not acceptable to the public would be appointed. His remarks were carried live on state television.

A prominent Egyptian activist credited with helping spark the revolution warned against taking too long.

“Biggest mistake now is to give the Egyptian people too little too slow. Restoring confidence requires a faster pace,” Wael Ghonim said on Twitter.

Crowds of uniformed police officers joined demonstrations in Cairo on Sunday, with protesters carrying officers on their shoulders amid cheers of “police and people are one.”

One policeman said they wanted higher pay, claiming that the army is paid four times as much as the police. Several hundred were protesting at the Ministry of the Interior, some in uniform and some in plain clothes.

The scene came as a contrast to the violent clashes between demonstrators and police that took place during the initial days of protests prior to Mubarak’s resignation from the presidency.

But there were angry shouts from some in the crowd when members of the army tried to move people from Tahrir Square.

Tahrir appeared less crowded Sunday than in previous days, though some Egyptians have vowed to keep protesting until “Egypt is ruled by a civil government, not a military one.”

But more signs of normalcy are sprouting up on the first regular work day without Mubarak as president. For the first time since demonstrators took control of Tahrir Square, traffic in the area flowed freely.

Sunday marks the traditional start of the work week in Egypt. By Sunday morning, the majority of shops around Tahrir were open.

Egyptian activist Ghonim wrote on his Twitter page: “Dear Egyptians, Go back to your work on Sunday, work like never before and help Egypt become a developed country.”

RELATED TOPICS

* Egypt
* Hosni Mubarak
* Tahrir Square

A mass of young people gathered outside the ministry of natural gas on Sunday to fill out applications, some leaning on cars to do so.

As thousands reveled in their revolution over the weekend, the nation’s newly appointed military caretakers laid out priorities Saturday geared at establishing stability — though they revealed little to elucidate the future.

The Armed Forces Supreme Council said Saturday it was committed to a democratic process resulting in civilian rule.

“The armed forces council calls on the people to cooperate with the policemen,” Lt. Gen. Sami Anan, who some see as a potential presidential candidate, said on state television. “We ask our policemen to adhere to their slogan: Police is at the people’s service.”

In the immediate future, the military — largely respected by Egyptians — will have to grapple with guiding the country of more than 80 million people through the transition amid massive problems of unemployment and economic underdevelopment.

The African nation virtually shut down during the unrest, losing vital tourism dollars as well.

Businessmen near the famed Pyramids said about 50,000 people are employed in the tourism industry.

“Young boys 17 years old and 18 years old, they want to say, ‘We are hungry, we want to eat, we want to work,’” one businessman, Ayman el Myonir, said Saturday.

Patrons at a coffee shop in central Cairo said they now feel free to speak honestly about Egypt’s political problems.

“I am happy and sad,” said one customer named Fateh. “I am sad because this is the president who carried us through wars and tough times.”

He said the turning point came when Mubarak supporters — some of whom wielded whips — rode horses and camels into the Tahrir Square crowd.

On Saturday, a marble memorial was being erected to remember those who died in the uprising. Human Rights Watch has documented 302 deaths, a number the monitoring group called conservative.

Anan, the armed forces chief of staff, said Egypt would still honor international treaties and commitments — a statement perhaps aimed at calming a jittery Israel that has quietly watched dramatic change unfold in its Arab ally.

“Egypt is a country of institutions and it honors its legal obligations,” Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian ambassador to the United States, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Saturday. The revolution is something “all Egyptians are proud of,” the diplomat said.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979. On Saturday, Israelis welcomed the Egyptian statement. Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke on the phone with his Egyptian counterpart Hussein Tantawi, who heads the supreme council, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

But how long Egypt would continue under military rule remained unclear.

Egypt’s constitution allows for only two scenarios if a head of state to relinquish power. The first stipulates that if the president has to step aside temporarily, the vice president steps into the top role. That is what Mubarak’s regime briefly orchestrated Thursday.

If the office of the president is vacated or the president becomes permanently disabled, the constitution states that the parliamentary speaker is to assume the role until new elections can be held. Those elections, in turn, must occur within 60 days.

But Mubarak’s regime put all power in the hands of the military — which, in effect, rendered the constitution inoperable.

Anan, who serves as spokesman for the Armed Forces Supreme Council, said Saturday the current government would remain in place until a new one could be formed.

Several high-ranking government officials — including the former prime minister and interior minister — were facing lawsuits and were barred from traveling out of the country, state television reported, citing a judiciary source.

But some analysts were sounding the alarm over the takeover by the military, which has suddenly become accountable for the nation. Analysts with Stratfor, a global intelligence company, said Egypt had essentially experienced a coup.

“Egypt is returning to the 1952 model of ruling the state via a council of army officers,” the Stratfor statement said. “The question now is to what extent the military elite will share power with its civilian counterparts.”

But even as officials hash out the details of Egypt’s murky political future, public demands for change rippled throughout the region.

In the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, protesters chanted Saturday: “Yesterday Tunisia, today Egypt — tomorrow Yemen will open the prison.”

And in restive Algeria, anti-government protesters chanted “Change the power” on Saturday. But security forces clashed with the crowds Saturday in Algiers and detained roughly 100 protesters, according to the opposition Algerian League for Human Rights.

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