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A military coup is reportedly under way Wednesday as Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi remains defiant following the expiration of an afternoon deadline.

Earlier, Al Hayat TV reported that Morsi was under house arrest. Morsi's spokesman denied the report, according to ABC News, but word of the house arrest provoked cheers in Tahrir Square.

This came as Egypt's military moved to tighten its control on key institutions before their afternoon ultimatum expired.

The military stationed officers in the newsroom of state television on the banks of the Nile River in central Cairo. Troops were deployed in news-production areas.

Officers from the army's media department moved inside the newsroom and were monitoring output, though not yet interfering, staffers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the arrangements.

This move shows the military's preparation for an almost certain push to remove the country's Islamist president when an afternoon ultimatum expires.

Earlier Wednesday, Egyptian leaders met with the army chief. This meeting also signaled the military was taking concrete moves toward implementing its plan to replace Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader who came to office a year ago.

The clock is ticking and no one is really sure exactly what will happen when the deadline is reached. It was imposed by Egypt's military Tuesday after massive demonstrations in the nation's capitol and it will be reached at 7 a.m. - 8 a.m. PT.

Under a plan leaked to state media, the military would install a new interim leadership, the Islamist-backed constitution suspended and the Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved.

Demonstrations turned violent overnight. Clashes between supporters and opponents of Egypt's president have left at least 39 people dead since the protests began Sunday.

Opponents of Morsi claim his mistakes in running the country have cost him legitimacy. They want him to step down immediately.

Morsi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is standing by him. Late Tuesday, Morsi gave a defiant speech, insisting he is staying in power. He also wants the military to stand down.

Experts watching the situation feel that Morsi lost the trust of the people early on when he and the Muslim Brotherhood took power and made changes to the country's constitution.

"It is not the economy. It is the quest for freedom and feeling that they have been betrayed and the resenting to replace a dictatorship of Mubarak by a theocracy dictatorship, where it will be the dictator is ruling but garbing himself in religion," said Dr. Maher Hathout with the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is urging Morsi to address the people's grievances and the White House is also warning Egypt's military that a coup could jeopardize relations with the United States.

The tension in Egypt is having an impact on global markets - especially the oil markets. Oil is now trading above $100 a barrel for the first time in close to a year. Egypt's Suez Canal is a major transit route for crude shipments from the Persian Gulf.

The Egyptian military has moved into key sites in Cairo hours after its ultimatum passed for President Mohammed Morsi to resolve a political crisis.

Tens of thousands of pro- and anti-Morsi protesters have gathered in areas of the capital, as Egyptians await a televised statement.

Opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei and religious leaders will make this statement, the state news agency said.

Before the deadline passed, Mr Morsi repeated his refusal to step down.

His aides took to social media to describe the events as a military coup but there was no confirmation of this.

There are unconfirmed reports that Egyptian officials have placed an international travel ban on Mr Morsi and other senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Armoured personnel carriers
The army is involved in a show of force, fanning out across Cairo and taking control of the capital, BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville reports.

He described seeing eight armoured personnel carriers heading for Cairo University in Giza, where one of the main pro-Morsi demonstrations was being held. At least 16 people were killed and about 200 wounded at the university when gunmen opened fire on protesters on Tuesday night.

Another pro-Morsi protest was being held in Nasr City, where New York Times reporter Kareem Fahim tweeted that soldiers had fired into the air to disperse demonstrators.

Opponents of the president gathered in Tahrir Square in their tens of thousands. When the army's 48-hour deadline passed, cheers echoed across the square.

Whether it is a military coup or not, on the streets of Cairo it certainly looks like one, our correspondent says.

Before the army's ultimatum to President Morsi expired at 16:30 (15:30 GMT), he posted a Facebook message calling for a roadmap involving an interim coalition government.

His whereabouts were not immediately clear but BBC Arabic confirmed that he was at the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard, a military site where he has stayed since the start of the protests.

One of Mr Morsi's aides, Issam al-Haddad, wrote on his Facebook page that he was "fully aware" his words might be the "last lines I get to post on this page", adding that what was happening was a "military coup".

Defiant speech

The army had earlier held meetings with political and religious leaders to discuss the crisis.

But the ruling Freedom and Justice party - the political arm of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood - stayed away from the talks.

Mr Morsi's opponents have accused him and the Muslim Brotherhood of pushing an Islamist agenda onto Egypt, and say that he should stand down.

In a defiant televised speech on Tuesday evening, Mr Morsi said he would give his life to defend constitutional legitimacy, and blamed the unrest on corruption and remnants of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was reported to have met his top commanders on Wednesday - and a source close to the military told AFP news agency they had been discussing details of a post-Morsi roadmap.

Members of the Tamarod (Rebel) movement, which has mobilised millions of demonstrators onto the streets to demand Mr Morsi's resignation, were also part of the meeting. So too were leading religious figures and Mr ElBaradei.

The president was put under further pressure by the resignation of six ministers from his government on Monday, including Foreign Minister Kamel Amr.

Elected president

Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak.

But dissent has been growing, with protesters angry at the lack of change in post-revolution Egypt and accusing the Brotherhood of trying to protect its own interests.

"This is a president threatening his own people. We don't consider him the president of Egypt," said Mohammed Abdelaziz, a leader of Tamarod.

However, Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood still have significant public support, and both sides have drawn huge numbers to rallies in recent days.

At least 39 people have now died since the protests began on Sunday.

The instability has also hit global oil prices, sending US light crude above $100 a barrel for the first time since September last year, amid concerns supply routes through the Suez Canal could be affected.

Egypt was the centerpiece of the Islamist movement's vault to power in the Arab world's sweeping wave of uprisings. Winning election after election here, the Islamists vowed to prove they could govern effectively and implement their vision of political Islam, all while embracing the rules of democracy.

Mohammed Morsi was their pillar: the veteran of the Muslim Brotherhood, the region's oldest and most prestigious political Islamist group, who became Egypt's first freely elected president.

That is what makes his ouster after barely a year in office, with a gigantic cross-section of Egypt's population demanding he go, such a devastating blow to Islamists on multiple levels, not only in Egypt but across a tumultuous region.

Morsi, his Brotherhood and their harder-line allies say they played by the rules of democracy, only to be forced out by opponents who could not play it as well as them at the ballot box and so turned to the military for help. The lesson that the Islamists' extreme fringe may draw: Democracy, which many of them viewed as "kufr" or heresy to begin with, is rigged and violence is the only way to bring their dream of an Islamic state.

But to the millions of Egyptians who marched in the street against Morsi, the Islamists failed at democracy: They overreached.

The protesters became convinced the Islamists were using wins at the polls to centralize power in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood far beyond their mandate and treat the country as if it accepted the "Islamist project." Even worse, for many of the protesters, the Islamists simply were not fixing Egypt's multiple and worsening woes.

That is a serious setback for their dreams, calling into doubt the argument by Islamists across the region that political Islam is the remedy to their society's ills. The damage to their prestige echoes widely, from Gaza where the Hamas rulers who saw in Morsi a strong ally, to Tunisia where a Brotherhood branch holds power, to Libya and Syria where Islamists push for power.

"The Brotherhood in Egypt is now a cautionary tale," said Michael W. Hanna of the Century Foundation in New York. "Morsi's abysmal performance during their short tenure is a tale of how not to guide and rule."

The irony is, the Brotherhood knew the risks going in. After the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the group vowed not to try to dominate parliament and not to run a candidate for president, knowing the backlash if it seemed to be grabbing power or if it led a government that failed to fix a broken Egypt. It went back on each of those promises, every time saying its hand was forced into doing so.

Morsi himself recognized the power of the street as he vowed to be a president for all the people. The day before his formal inauguration on June 30, 2012, he first delivered a symbolic oath of office in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolt that overthrew his autocratic predecessor.

"You are the source of power and legitimacy," he told the crowd. Nothing stands above "the will of the people. The nation is the source of all power. It grants and withdraws power."

In the broad range of the political Islam movement — from moderates to militants — the Brotherhood eventually emerged as the central force arguing that Islamists can be democrats. Their influence drew in harder-line groups to participate at the ballot box. Ultraconservatives who once refused elections that could potentially bring any law but God's law took their chance at the polls.

In an impassioned Facebook post just before the army pushed Morsi out Wednesday, one of his top advisers Essam el-Haddad argued that what was happening was irrevocably damaging democracy itself, saying the Brotherhood had been unfairly treated. He insisted history would show the Brotherhood tried to include others in its administration but was shunned.

"Increasingly, the so-called liberals of Egypt escalated a rhetoric inviting the military to become the custodians of government in Egypt," he wrote. "The opposition has steadfastly declined every option that entails a return to the ballot box."

But amid multiple complaints, opponents point to a key factor that turned many against the Brotherhood: the post-Mubarak constitution. Morsi had vowed a consensus on the landmark document, but Islamists dominated the panel writing it. Liberals, leftists, secular politicians and Christians steadily dropped out, complaining Morsi's allies were forcing their vision. In the end, Morsi unilaterally decreed himself and the assembly untouchable by the courts to ensure judges did not dissolve the panel, while Islamists hastily finished writing the charter in an all-night marathon session.

It was rushed to a referendum, where it passed with a hearty 63 percent of the vote — but only just over 32 percent of the electorate casting ballots.

Meanwhile, Brotherhood members and other Islamists were steadily were given more posts across the government, fueling a perception that they were taking over institutions — though they constantly faced resistance on many fronts from the entrenched bureaucracy. Islamist rhetoric from officials and clerics on TV rang in the ears of many as divisive and harsh.

Morsi's ouster could now send the Brotherhood into disarray for years to come, just as a major crackdown on the group did in 1954. Morsi and many of his advisers have been put under house arrest, and he could face trial for escaping prison during the 2011 uprising. Two top leaders of the group, including the head of its political party Saad el-Katatni, were arrested and at least 30 more were expected to meet the same fate.

The danger now could be that a heavy crackdown will turn into forcibly excluding them from politics once more. The Brotherhood was banned for much of its 83-year existence. But it still maintains a powerful, organized and disciplined network of members nationwide.

"The forceful removal of the nation's first democratically-elected civilian president risks sending a message to Islamists that they have no place in the political order; sowing fears among them that they will suffer yet another bloody crackdown; and thus potentially prompting violent, even desperate resistance by Morsi's followers," the Brussels based International Crisis group warned in a statement.

The chief justice of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court was sworn in Thursday as the nation's interim president, taking over hours after the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and launched a major crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails.

In the highest profile arrest since Morsi's ouster, security officials said that Mohammed Badie, supreme leader of the Brotherhood, was arrested late on Wednesday in the Mediterranean coastal city of Marsa Matrouh, where he has been staying in a villa owned by a businessman with Brotherhood links.

He was flown to Cairo on a military helicopter, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. He, and his powerful deputy, Khairat el-Shater, are wanted for questioning on their role in the killing this week of eight protesters in clashes outside the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters.

Morsi himself, the Brotherhood veteran who a year ago became Egypt's first freely elected president, has been held in an unknown location since the generals pushed him out Wednesday.

The Brotherhood announced it would boycott the new military-sponsored political process and called on its supporter to restrain themselves and not use violence.

"We declare our uncompromising rejection of the military coup staged against the elected president and the will of the nation and refuse to participate in any activist with the usurping authorities," said the statement, which the group's mufti Abdel-Rahman el-Barr read to the Morsi's supporters staging a days-long sit-in in Cairo.

Morsi's successor, judge Adly Mansour, took the oath of office at the Nile-side Constitutional Court in a ceremony broadcast live on state television. According to military decree, Mansour will serve as Egypt's interim leader until a new president is elected. A date for that vote has yet to be set.

Dressed in a dark blue suit and a sky blue tie, Mansour used his first remarks as interim leader to praise the massive street demonstrations that led to Morsi's ouster. He hailed the youth behind the protests that began on June 30 and brought out millions around the country.

June 30 "corrected the path of the glorious revolution that took place on Jan. 25," he said, referring to the revolt against autocrat Hosni Mubarak that began Jan. 25, 2011 and led to his ouster 18 days later.

"The most glorious thing about June 30 is that it brought together everyone without discrimination or division," he said. "I offer my greetings to the revolutionary people of Egypt."

"I look forward to parliamentary and presidential elections held with the genuine and authentic will of the people," Mansour said. "The youth had the initiative and the noblest thing about this glorious event is that it was an expression of the nation's conscience and an embodiment of its hopes and ambitions. It was never a movement seeking to realize special demands or personal interests."

The revolution, he said, must continue, so "we stop producing tyrants."

Badie and el-Shater were widely believed by the oppositions to be the real power in Egypt during Morsi's tenure.

Authorities have also issued a wanted list for more than 200 Brotherhood members and leaders of other Islamist groups. The leader of the Brotherhood's political arm — Freedom and Justice Party — and another of Badie's deputies have been detained. At least a dozen of Morsi's advisers and aides are also under house arrest.

The arrests and warrants against Brotherhood leaders signal a crackdown by the military against Islamists who have dominated the political scene in Egypt since the ouster in 2011 of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The Brotherhood's television station, Misr 25, has been taken off the air along with several TV networks run by Islamists. Morsi's critics have long accused the stations of sowing divisions among Egyptians and inciting against secularists, liberals, Christians and Shiite Muslims with their hard-line rhetoric.

Pushing aside Morsi, army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced Wednesday in a televised speech that the military had suspended the Islamist-drafted constitution, and that a civilian Cabinet of technocrat would run the country until new presidential elections are held. No date has been given.

Millions of anti-Morsi protesters around the country erupted in celebrations after the televised announcement by the army chief on Wednesday evening. Fireworks burst over crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where men and women danced, shouting, "God is great" and "Long live Egypt."

That fact that Egypt's interim president comes from the Constitutional Court adds a symbolic sting to Morsi's ouster.

The Islamist leader and his Muslim Brotherhood backers had repeatedly clashed with the judiciary, particularly the constitutional court, while in power, accusing the judges of being loyalists of former autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in a 2011 uprising, and saying they seek to undermine Egypt's shift to democratic rule.

The judges, meanwhile, had repeatedly challenged the Brotherhood's policies and what many in Egypt considered the group's march to power. The Constitutional Court dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament in June last year, saying it was illegally elected. It rejected a Morsi decree to reinstate the chamber.

Even with an interim leader now in place, Egypt remains on an uncertain course following Morsi's ouster, and the possibility of further confrontation still looms. Beyond the fears over violence, some protesters are concerned whether an army-installed administration can lead to real democracy.The Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader has been arrested in a coastal city and flown to Cairo on a military helicopter, security officials said on Thursday, the most high profile move by the military in a crackdown against the Islamic group from which ousted president Mohammed Moris hails.

After days of deadlock, Egypt's military-backed interim president named a veteran economist as prime minister on Tuesday and appointed pro-democracy leader Mohamed ElBaradei as a vice president, while the army showed its strong hand in shepherding the process, warning political factions against "maneuvering" that impedes the transition.

The appointment of Hazem el-Beblawi as prime minister came soon after the interim leadership issued a timetable that sets a fast track for amending the constitution and holding elections for a new parliament within seven months, followed by a presidential election.

The moves — and the statement Tuesday by military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — showed the determination to entrench a new political system in the face of an campaign by Islamists to reverse the military's July 3 ousting of President Mohammed Morsi. The military removed the country's first freely elected president last week after four days of massive protests by millions of Egyptians demanding he go.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood denounced the transition plan, saying it brings the country back to "zero" in the political process and vowed to continue street protests demanding Morsi's reinstatement. A day earlier, more than 50 Morsi supporters were killed by security forces in clashes outside a military installation, heightening the country's polarization between Islamists and their opponents.

Arab countries of the Gulf, which were largely opposed to the Brotherhood's power in Egypt, quickly moved to back the new leadership with promises of help for its economy, wrecked by 2 ½ years of turmoil since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates pledged $3 billion in grants and loans to Egypt's new government.

The naming of a prime minister was seen as a key step in moving ahead in the political process, but it had been deadlocked for days in negotiations between liberal, secular and youth factions and the sole Islamist party that backed Morsi's removal, which blocked several of their candidates.

El-Beblawi, 76, called for dialogue between the new leadership and their Islamist opponents. "Everyone in Egypt must sit together on the table for dialogue to solve current political differences, stop violence and bloodshed in the street," he told The Associated Press.

El-Beblawi served as finance minister in one of the first cabinets formed after Mubarak's ouster and military stepped in to rule for 18-month transitional period. He resigned in protest in October 2011 after 26 protesters, mostly Christians, were killed by troops and security forces in a crackdown on their march.

He is one of the founders of the Egyptian Social Democratic party, one of several secular parties in the liberal grouping National Salvation Front. The Front had backed youth activists who drove the massive protests against Morsi and brought down his rule thanks to military intervention.

Liberal, secular and youth factions have been trying to ensure one of their own in the spot, but collided with the ultraconservative Salafi Al-Nour Party. Last week, ElBaradei was on the verge of being named prime minister, but at the last minute he was withdrawn in the face of Al-Nour objections. An ally of ElBaradei was then touted as a compromise, but the Salafis again expressed disapproval.

ElBaradei is considered one of the strongest pro-reform figures, but many Islamists vehemently oppose him, considering him too secular.

Soon after el-Beblawi's appointment was announced by the spokesman of the interim president, military chief el-Sissi issued a statement telling factions not to engage in political "maneuvering" in what appeared to be a veiled warning to Al-Nour.

"The future of the nation is too important and sacred for maneuvers or hindrance, whatever the justifications," el-Sissi said in a statement carried by state-TV.

A spokesman for Al-Nour, Ibrahim Abaza, told AP that the group welcomes el-Beblawi's appointment.

The quick moves on a transition also likely aim to show the United States and other Western nations that the country is moving quickly back to an elected civilian leadership. Washington has expressed concern over the removal of Egypt's first freely elected president, and if the U.S. government determines that the army's move qualifies as a coup it would have to cut off more than a $1 billion in aid to Egypt, mostly to the military. The Obama administration has said doing so would not be in U.S. interests.

After Monday's bloodshed, both the Brotherhood and the military appeared dug in in their standoff. The military accused armed Islamists of sparking the fighting by attacking the headquarters of the Republican Guard. Morsi supporters say no such attack took place and that troops attacked their sit-in nearby, opening fire on them without provocation after dawn prayers. Along with 51 protesters, an army officer and two policemen were killed.

Since the deaths, the military and allied media have depicted the campaign to restore Morsi as increasingly violent and infused with armed extremists.

An Egyptian security official said 650 people were arrested, most during Monday's violence, for allegedly trying to storm the Republican Guard headquarters. The military claims that is what sparked the violence that led to the deaths. Protesters and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood deny any attack took place, saying the troops descended on their sit-in outside the headquarters and started firing.

The official said there were Syrian and Palestinian nationals among those arrested — an apparent attempt to portray the sit-in as including foreign militants. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Islamists, in turn, have talked of the military aiming to crush them after what they say was a coup to wreck democracy.

Supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi protest at the Republican Guard building in Nasr City, …
Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood figure and deputy head of its Freedom and Justice Party, rejected the transition timetable, saying it takes the country "back to zero."

"The cowards are not sleeping, but Egypt will not surrender. The people created their constitution with their votes," he wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the constitution that Islamists pushed to finalization and then was passed in a national referendum during Morsi's year in office.

He said the military and its allies were targeting "not just the president but the nation's identity, the rights and freedoms of the people and the democratic system enshrined in the constitution."

The constitution passed under Morsi — and suspended since his fall — was written by an assembly created by the first post-Mubarak parliament, elected in 2011-2012. But the panel was deeply controversial.

Reflecting the parliament, the constituent assembly had a strong Islamist majority. Most non-Islamists eventually abandoned the assembly, complaining that the Brotherhood and its allies were imposing their will. Courts were considering whether to dissolve the panel but Morsi unilaterally decreed that they could not while his allies rushed to finalize the draft.

The final version had a strong Islamist flavor, deepening requirements for laws to abide by Shariah. The document passed in a referendum with around 60 percent of the vote — but only around 30 percent of voters casting ballots.

Under the timetable issued Monday by interim president Adly Mansour, two appointed panels would be created.

One, made up of judges, would come up with amendments. The other, larger body consisting of representatives of society and political movements would debate the amendments and approve them.

The new constitution would be put to a referendum within 4 ½ months from now.

Elections for a new parliament would be held within two months of that. Once the new parliament convenes, it would have a week to set a date for presidential elections.