Instant view: Widespread protests in Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to bow to demands that he resign, after ordering troops and tanks into cities in an attempt to quell street protests against his 30-year rule.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

"When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight, he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity. I just spoke to him after his speech and I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people and suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.

"What's needed now are concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people, a meaningful dialogue between the government and its citizens and a path of political change that leads to a future of greater freedom and greater opportunity and justice for the Egyptian people."

ANTHONEY SKINNER, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF POLITICAL CONSULTANCY MAPLECROFT

"Mubarak is showing he is still there for now and he is trying to deflect some of the force of the process away from himself by sacking the Cabinet. In some ways, it is reminiscent of what Ben Ali did in Tunisia before he was forced out

"We will have to see how people react but I don't think it will be enough at all. I wouldn't want to put a number on his chances of survival -- we really are in uncharted territory."

PROTESTERS IN CENTRAL SQUARE AFTER MUBARAK SPEECH

"People want to change the regime."

LAILA ALI ON FACEBOOK

"I think Mubarak has a hearing or seeing problem."

SALAH ABDEL MAQSOUD, JOURNALISTS' UNION OFFICIAL

"We don't want this regime to leave this country in a state of destruction. We want it to go away. We need to give them a safe haven to leave this nation. Leave us, enough."

(Compiled by London World Desk)