Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi on Saturday backed down in a dire political crisis marked by weeks of street protests, after the powerful army gave an ultimatum to him and the opposition to sit down for talks.
But it was not immediately clear whether his concession would satisfy an increasingly fierce opposition.
The Islamist leader annulled a controversial decree issued last month that put his decisions beyond judicial review – a move denounced as a dictatorial “power grab” by the opposition, but one Mursi had defended as necessary to protect reforms.
“The constitutional decree is annulled from this moment,” Selim al-Awa, an Islamist politician and advisor to Mursi told a news conference after a meeting between the president and other political leaders.
But Awa said that an equally contentious referendum on a new constitution would go ahead as planned on December 15.
The president was legally bound under the constitution to maintain that date and had no choice, he explained.