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Tieng Anh Vui
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool: Anti-government protesters "are already celebrating"
Egypt's army has denied its ultimatum to feuding politicians to resolve the country's deadly crisis within 48 hours amounts to a coup.
It said earlier it would offer a "road map" for peace if Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his opponents failed to heed "the will of the people".
Noisy celebrations erupted in Cairo as protesters interpreted the ultimatum as spelling the end of Mr Morsi's rule.
On Sunday millions rallied nationwide, urging the president to quit.
Large protests continued on Monday, and eight people died as activists stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, to which the president belongs.
He became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Coup in the making?
In an announcement read out on Egyptian TV, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, defence minister and head of the armed forces, described the protests as an "unprecedented" expression of the popular will.
Analysis
The statement by the minister of defence and army chief, Gen al-Sisi, was worded carefully.
It did not say the president must go. The army, with troops in strategic positions across Cairo, is saying the government and opposition have 48 hours to agree a way forward or it will intervene with its own plan.
The Egyptian military has been both hero and villain for the people involved in the ousting of President Mubarak in 2011.
Heroes, first of all, when they put themselves between protesters and the Mubarak regime's enforcers. But later they were widely criticised for holding onto power for too long.
The reality is they have never given up their critical role behind the scenes, which includes huge economic power.
No matter which way Egypt goes - and there could be some very rough days ahead - the army will never want its own power diluted.
If the people's demands were not met, he said, the military would have to take responsibility for a plan for the future.
But while he said the army would not get involved in politics or government, his words were seen by many as a coup in the making.
To the sound of blaring car horns and exploding fireworks, tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters of Tamarod (Rebel) - the opposition movement behind the protests - partied in Cairo's Tahrir Square late into the night.
They accuse Mr Morsi of putting the Brotherhood's interests ahead of the country's as a whole.
As five helicopters flew over the square with huge Egyptian flags hanging below them, the crowds chanted: "The army and the people are one hand."
There were similarly jubilant scenes in the Mediterranean city of Port Said and outside Mr Morsi's house in Zagazig, where protesters vowed to continue a sit-in until a clear plan for handing over power was enacted.
Given the inability of politicians from all sides to agree until now, the 48-hour ultimatum makes it unlikely Mr Morsi can survive in power, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Cairo.
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But a second statement posted on the military's Facebook page late on Monday emphasised the army "does not aspire to rule and will not overstep its prescribed role".
"Our earlier statement's purpose was to push all parties to find a quick solution to the current crisis... to push towards a national consensus that responds to the people's demands," said the statement.
Senior Brotherhood figure Muhammad al-Biltaji urged pro-Morsi supporters to "call their families in all Egyptian governorates and villages to be prepared to take to the streets and fill squares" to support their president.
"Any coup of any sort will only pass over our dead bodies," he said to a roar from thousands gathered outside the Rab'ah al-Adawiyah mosque in Cairo's Nasr district.
There were reports of gun clashes between rival factions in the city of Suez, east of the capital, on Monday night.
A night-time press conference by the presidency was postponed until Tuesday. Instead, an undated photograph posted on the president's official Facebook page showed Mr Morsi smiling with Gen Sisi and Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
Obama calls for restraint
The opposition movement had given Mr Morsi until Tuesday afternoon to step down and call fresh presidential elections, or else face a campaign of civil disobedience.
On Saturday, the group said it had collected more than 22 million signatures - more than a quarter of Egypt's population - in support.
And on Monday the ministers of tourism, environment, communication and legal affairs reportedly resigned in an act of "solidarity with the people's demand to overthrow the regime".
But Mr Morsi was defiant in an interview published on Sunday, rejecting calls for early presidential elections.
US President Barack Obama has called for restraint on all sides, saying the potential for violence remained.
Although it was not the job of the US to choose Egypt's leaders, it wanted to make sure all voices were heard, said Mr Obama during a visit to Tanzania.
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