President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to discuss recent political developments.

The presidency's official Facebook page published a photo of the meeting. It also published a photo of a meeting between the three on Monday, making this the second meeting in the past 24 hours.

Five cabinet ministers have submitted their resignations in protest at President Morsi's failure to respond to Sunday's nationwide demonstrations against his rule.

In addition, the spokesmen for the presidency and the cabinet quit on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a televised statement giving Egyptian political forces 48 hours to "fulfil the people's demands," otherwise it would present a political "roadmap" for the country that would include all political currents.

Amid speculation that the army will stage a coup against the president, the armed forces released a later statement saying that its doctrine does not permit military coups.

Many opposition political forces hailed the army's statement and repeated their demand for early presidential elections.

Mass demonstrations are expected to continue across the country by both supporters and opponents of Morsi.

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