Egyptian president-elect defiant in speech

CAIRO -- In front of tens of thousands of cheering supporters, Egypt's first Islamist and civilian president-elect vowed Friday to fight for his authority, and symbolically read an oath of office in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the eve of his inauguration.

Mohammed Morsi's strongly worded speech was a show of defiance as he gears up to a power struggle with the country's ruling generals, who passed a constitutional declaration taking over major presidential powers in the days before election results were announced after a bitter campaign.

"Everybody is hearing me now. The government, the military and the police . . . No power above this power," he said as the crowd roared. "I reaffirm to you I will not give up any of the president's authorities. I can't afford to do this. I don't have that right to that."

"You are the source of legitimacy and whoever is protected by anyone else will lose," he told his supporters.

He also addressed popular demands, vowing to work for the release of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik jailed in the United States for a plot to blow up New York landmarks, and for detained Egyptian protesters facing military tribunals.

"I will do my best to free all detainees, including Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman," he said, pointing to a group of protesters holding a poster of the spiritual leader convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Supporters have called for the sheik to be repatriated to Egypt on humanitarian grounds.

Morsi, a 60-year-old U.S.-trained engineer, narrowly defeated Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister and a former air force general, in a runoff race that deeply polarized the nation.