Morsi says Egypt on path to "freedom and democracy"

CAIRO: Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi told supporters on Thursday that Egypt was on the path to "freedom and democracy," a day after he assumed sweeping powers that critics said made him a dictator.

"Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for," he told a rally outside the presidential palace.

Secular opponents staged a rival rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square to denounce Morsi's power grab after he issued a decree on Thursday that gives his decisions immunity from judicial oversight.

"I have always been, and still am, and will always be, God willing, with the pulse of the people, what the people want, with clear legitimacy," he said from a podium before thousands of supporters.

Morsi attacked his opponents in the judiciary who annulled the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament before his election in June and were considering voiding an Islamist-dominated constituent assembly next month.

His decree, granting himself unprecedented power, will expire when a new constitution is approved by the middle of February.

But his opponents say he has become a dictator with even more power than president Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in a popular mass uprising in early 2011.

Morsi's supporters say the decree was necessary to bring an end to the turbulent transition period.

If the constitutional court annulled the constituent assembly, Morsi would have to pick a new one, prolonging its work and delaying parliamentary elections.