Egypt's military rulers have promised at a crisis meeting to end the 30-year state of emergency and halt military trials of civilians, state television reported Saturday night, dpa reported.
However, no exact date was set for terminating the state of emergency, which the military rulers extended in September until June 2012.
Samy Anan, a senior member of Egypt's ruling military council, told representatives of the country's opposition at the meeting that an election law would be amended to cancel an article that prevents political parties from contesting seats allocated for independents in the November parliamentary elections, according to the TV report.
Egypt's opposition says that allowing individual candidacy in elections would allow supporters of ousted president Hosny Mubarak to enter parliament.
"Anan also promised on Saturday studying the possibility of issuing a law to bar leaders in the (Mubarak's) National Democratic Party from practising politics," the television said.
"The military council is committed to setting a clear and exact road map for transferring power to an elected civilian administration," Anan, who is the chief of the Egyptian army staff, was quoted as saying.
Saturday's meeting came one day after thousands of people protested in central Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand abolishing the state of emergency and ending trying civilians at military tribunals.
Unlike at civilian courts, verdicts issued by military courts cannot be appealed.
Around 12,000 civilians have been referred to military courts since Mubarak's ouster in February, according to local activists and human rights groups.
Several protesters were arrested in Cairo on Friday after some of them attempted to head to the Defence Ministry and were blocked by military police.
Egyptian activists and political forces are critical of the country's military rulers at what they perceive as their foot dragging on erasing the legacy of the Mubarak regime.
In last year's parliamentary elections, Mubarak's party won nearly 90 per cent of the vote.
Parliament was dissolved after Mubarak was forced to step down on February 11.
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