Egypt will face greater instability if President Hosny Mubarak does not quickly take concrete steps for reforms and a transition of power, the White House said Friday, dpa reported.
"Unless or until that happens instability is actually going to increase," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, urging Mubarak and Vice President Omar Suleiman to defuse the tension.
"There are concrete actions that he can take and the vice president can take toward moving in the path of real change that can lesson instability and can ensure we don't descend into the chaos he describes," Gibbs added.
Mubarak said in an interview with ABC aired Thursday that he would like to leave office sooner, but warned that doing so would foment more chaos.
Gibbs said, however, the mass protests throughout the country that have forced Mubarak to pledge he will leave office will continue until additional reforms and a transition are announced.
"My guess is the people that you see on TV aren't going anywhere," he said.
Mubarak has said he will not seek another term when his current one expires in September, but that has not satisfied the protesters, who want an immediate end to his 30-year rule.
The New York Times, citing unnamed US officials and Arab diplomats, reported Friday that President Barack Obama's administration has been involved in discussions seeking to persuade Mubarak for an earlier departure and the creation of an interim government.