Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said on national TV on November 22 that they would happen by July 2012.

He said it was committed to holding parliamentary elections on schedule and that a new president would be elected sooner than expected, by the end of June.

While such announcements fell short of what demonstrators have demanded, they might be enough to convince many Egyptians who haven't joined protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Tens of thousands of people continued to pack the square on November 22.

Next week's parliamentary elections are due to set in train a process of transition to democracy following the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Under the military's original timetable, presidential elections might not have happened until 2013.