SUPPORTERS of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have protested outside several ministries in further defiance of a government ultimatum to dismantle their sprawling Cairo protest camps.
Police on Tuesday fired tear gas to break up brief clashes that erupted between Morsi loyalists and residents of a central Cairo neighbourhood, AFP correspondents reported.
Confrontations began when dozens of religious scholars affiliated with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood entered the religious endowments ministry and were ordered out by police, a security official said.
The scholars were joined by more pro-Morsi protesters who damaged shop fronts, further infuriating residents, who pelted them with stones.
The clashes came as Morsi supporters demonstrated outside several government ministries.
Loyalists of the deposed president have set up two huge Cairo protest camps and have held near daily demonstrations for his reinstatement since the military overthrow on July 3.
The stand-off with the army-backed interim government, which has threatened to disperse the camps housing thousands of Islamists, has sparked international fears of further bloodshed.
More than 250 people have been killed in clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators and security forces since the end of June.
Since police issued an ultimatum last week to end the protests, the Islamists have repeatedly called for new demonstrations.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, insist the demonstrations are peaceful, while the government and the press accuse demonstrators at Rabaa and Nahda of being "terrorists".
They say the protesters are hiding automatic weapons in the squares and using women and children as "human shields".
The government has struggled to come up with a clear strategy to end the protests, its members split between those who want to send in the security forces and those who want a negotiated solution, in deference to international appeals to avoid further bloodshed.
