Pro-democracy protesters are continuing their sit-in in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square for the fourteenth consecutive day, showing no signs of being appeased by talks held a day earlier between the government and opposition groups.
People were still camped out in the square on Monday while life was slowly getting back to normal in other parts of the Egyptian capital.
An Al Jazeera correspondent said traffic in the streets was increasing while businesses were beginning to reopen.
"There's a lot of popular public sentiments in Cairo and wider Egypt regarding what those protesters are trying to achieve but at the same time, people are trying to get back to live as normal lives as possible," he said.
"But some of the shopping malls for example are still closed because they're afraid of looting, and the banks yesterday were only open for a few hours."
Tanks continue to guard government buildings, embassies and other important institutions in the city.
Meanwhile, an Al Jazeera online producer, reporting from the square said relations between the protesters and the troops were turning tense.
On Sunday night, troops stationed near the famed Egypt Museum had briefly opened fire. Tensions also rose when soldiers attempted to reinforce a barbed wire fence, which the protesters resisted. Agitated protesters staged a sit-in and two of them were detained.
Opposition talks
Egypt has been in turmoil since January 25, when protesters took to the streets seeking the immediate resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the president who has ruled the country for three decades.
Omar Suleiman, the country's newly appointed vice-president, began meetings with six opposition groups on Sunday, including the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).
Salma El-Tarzi, an activist in Tahrir Square, told Al Jazeera that she was indifferent to the talks.
"The political parties can do whatever they please because they don't represent us," she said.
"This is not a revolution made by the parties. The parties have been there for 30 years and they've done nothing. This is the people's revolution."
Reforms pledged
According to a statement from Suleiman's office following the meeting, the government offered to form a committee to examine proposed constitutional amendments, pursue allegedly corrupt government officials, "liberalize" media and communications and lift the state of emergency in the country when the security situation was deemed to be appropriate.
But Fotouh said the government had failed to take concrete measures on the ground.
"If they were serious, the parliament would have been dissolved, also a presidential decree ending the emergency law".
Egypt has been under emergency rule since 1981, the year Mubarak assumed power.
Barack Obama, the US president, made new remarks on the political situation in Egypt after the meeting. He told the US television network Fox that Egyptians would not permit a repressive government to fill the Mubarak void, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood is only one faction in Egypt.
Our correspondent in Cairo said the pro-democracy protesters were still not pleased with Obama's stance on the crisis.
"Protesters tell me Obama still hasn't come up with any statement that they want to hear," he said.
"They want immediate change and the feeling among many of them is that the way US is handling this crisis is not good for the way America is perceived both here and in general in the wider region."
PHOTO CAPTION
Opposition supporters carry a makeshift coffin through Tahrir Square in Cairo February 6, 2011.
Al-Jazeera