A few hundred reform activists have marched through a Cairo neighbourhood denouncing the president without a riot police officer in sight.

The demonstration took place on Wednesday; two days after the visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for free expression for the opposition.

In previous protests, security forces have outnumbered protesters, surrounding them to prevent them from moving and sometimes scaring passers-by and stopping people from joining.

But police remained in their trucks on Wednesday, out of sight, while more than 300 protesters walked for two hours down a main street of the crowded working-class district of Shoubra, chanting "Kifaya" - Arabic for "Enough!" - to President Hosni Mubarak.

"Down with Mubarak," they shouted, and "Gamal tell your father, all Egyptian people hate you," referring to the president's son.

A group of fewer than 100 Mubarak supporters nearby shouted back: "Gamal tell your father 70 million Egyptians love you."

No violence 

Some took their shoes off, a sign of contempt, and made obscene gestures, but there was no violence.

The reform protest organisers chose Shoubra in an attempt to draw into their cause people normally not involved in politics.

The district - far from official buildings where such rallies usually take place - is one of Cairo's most populated areas, with seven million residents, a mix of Muslims and Christians.

Thousands of people lined the streets and hung out of windows and balconies to watch the march, some smiling, clapping and chanting along with the protesters. Some passers-by joined the protest.

Others looked shocked - or afraid - at seeing a protest. Some shopowners quickly shut their doors, fearing violence with police.

"Yes! Enough! We've had it, we're dying," Yasser Mohammed, the driver of a minibus, shouted from his window in support of the protesters as he drove past.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Egyptian elderly reform activist shouts anti-President Mubarak slogans during a rally organized by the popular campaign for change, a group of mainly leftist activists, to protest against Mubarak in Cairo Wednesday June 22, 2005. (AP)