CAIRO, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman met with opposition leaders Sunday, and reportedly pledged political reform and press freedom.
Suleiman and the opposition groups -- including the Muslim Brotherhood -- will set up a committee to propose constitutional amendments ending the ruling party's monopoly, The Washington Post reported, citing state television.
The government also promised to stop blocking the Internet and harassing journalists.
The Brotherhood had demanded President Hosni Mubarak's immediate resignation before joining talks Saturday, but reversed course Sunday, saying it wished to influence the change of regime.
But not all opposition forces were on board. Former U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei reaffirmed his boycott of talks with the government Sunday.
"I would not talk to these people until Mubarak steps down," he told CNN.
ElBaradei said a transitional government led by Suleiman alone was unacceptable and a three-member presidential council, of which only one would be Suleiman or another military official, should take over for a year.
"I think any election in the next couple of months -- before the right people establish parties and engage -- it will be again a fake democracy," he said.
Meanwhile, crowds continued to occupy Cairo's Tahrir Square Sunday as banks across the country reopened for the first time in a week, the BBC said.
Hisham Kassem, a political analyst who has long opposed Mubarak, predicted, "My bet is, the crowd is not going away."
He said the parties negotiating with Suleiman are "completely irrelevant" and "the people on Tahrir Square either wouldn't recognize them, or else would barely give them the time of day."
