Egypt's military rulers on Saturday accused the April 6 pro-democracy group, which helped launch the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, of sowing strife after hundreds tried to march to the defense ministry.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces -- which took power when former president Mubarak was toppled in February -- accused April 6 of "driving a wedge between the people and the army."

Hundreds of Egyptian protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to push for reforms, as Islamists held a separate demonstration calling for stability.

Pro-democracy activists had called for a rally in Tahrir Square -- the epicenter of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak -- after a cabinet reshuffle failed to satisfy their demands.

New ministers in a sweeping reshuffle of Egypt's cabinet were sworn in before the military ruler on Thursday, as the prime minister sought to appease protesters over the pace of reform.

"The new ministers in the government of (Prime Minister) Essam Sharaf took their oaths ... in front of the commander of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi," the official MENA news agency reported.

The new Egyptian cabinet is due to be sworn in on Thursday, a military official said, three days behind schedule after last minute negotiations and the prime minister's admission to hospital.

"The new ministers in Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's government will be sworn in on Thursday in front of the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi," the official told the state MENA news agency.

Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak's health is stable, but he has an abnormal heart rhythm and sometimes falls unconscious, the official MENA news agency reported on Tuesday.

The ex-president, 83, is under arrest on murder and corruption charges in a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Egypt's embattled Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was putting final touches to his new cabinet on Tuesday after being hospitalized overnight suffering from exhaustion.

The cabinet, aimed at appeasing protesters who want a purge of old regime figures and quicker reforms, was meant to take office on Monday but a swearing in ceremony was postponed amid objections to the choice of ministers.

Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Monday postponed the swearing-in of a new cabinet intended to deflect anger over the pace of reform as protesters said the shakeup did not go far enough.

Sharaf, who heads a caretaker government after a revolt toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak in February, had hoped the sweeping reshuffle would persuade the protesters to end a 10-day-old sit-in at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square.

Egypt's antiquities minister, whose trademark Indiana Jones hat made him one of the country's best known figures around the world, was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Zahi Hawass, long chided as publicity loving and short on scientific knowledge, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak's regime.

A Red Sea hospital on Sunday denied a report that Egypt's ailing former president Hosni Mubarak had fallen into a "full coma," two weeks before he is due to go on trial for murder and corruption.

"The former president is in a full coma after his health suddenly deteriorated," state television quoted Mubarak's lawyer as saying.

Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf pushed forward with plans for a sweeping cabinet shuffle on Sunday in a bid to appease protesters angry over the pace of reform.

Sharaf has handed his proposed list of ministers to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for approval, the official MENA news agency reported.