An Egyptian court has decided to release three Americans arrested during protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, pending an investigation, the official MENA news agency reported Thursday.

On Wednesday, the prosecutor general ordered the three students of the American University in Cairo be detained for four days.

Members of Egypt's ruling military council on Thursday rejected calls to step down immediately, saying it would amount to a "betrayal" as anti-military protests entered their seventh day.

"The people have entrusted us with a mission and if we abandon it now, it would be a betrayal of the people," said General Mukthar al-Mulla, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which took power when veteran president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February.

Egypt's military rulers apologized on Thursday for the deaths of demonstrators at the hands of police as protests demanding an immediate handover to civilian control entered a seventh day.

At least 35 protesters have been killed since Saturday -- when clashes erupted -- and more than 2,000 injured, prompting expressions of concern from Western governments and a call from the United Nations for an independent inquiry into the "excessive use of force."

The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, called on Egyptian police on Wednesday not to shoot at protesters demanding democratic change as four more people died in clashes.

As thousands rallied for a fifth straight day in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, epicenter of the Arab Spring uprising which overthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February, an opinion poll found that 43 percent of Egyptians thought the ruling military was trying to slow down or reverse its gains.

Three more people died in Cairo on Wednesday, a medic said, as violence which has killed dozens raged into a fifth day despite promises by Egypt's military ruler to speed up the transition to democracy.

Clashes broke out in Mohammed Mahmoud street, just off Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, where thousands of protesters rallied again on Wednesday to demand an immediate end to military rule.

The U.N. human rights chief called Wednesday for an independent probe into the killing of protesters by Egypt's military and security forces.

"I urge the Egyptian authorities to end the clearly excessive use of force against protesters in Tahrir Square and elsewhere in the country, including the apparent improper use of tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition," said Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Days of protest in Egypt, ahead of elections expected to produce big wins for the Muslim Brotherhood, have stirred fears in Israel about bilateral ties and the future of the countries' peace treaty.

Israel had largely avoided comment on the unrest, which has seen dozens of Egyptians killed, but with protesters showing no signs of calling off their demonstrations, officials here have started to show concern.

Egypt's military ruler said on Tuesday that presidential elections will be held by end of June 2012, and that a referendum on the immediate transfer of power would be organized if necessary.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted, said in a televised address that he had accepted the cabinet's resignation, a week before crucial legislative polls which he said would be held on schedule.

Arab regimes should not fear their peoples' aspirations for democracy and reform, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told a pro-democracy forum in Kuwait on Tuesday.

"A year after the start of the Arab Spring ... states gathering here should show they do not fear the aspirations of their peoples and civil society," Juppe told the opening session of the eighth Forum for the Future.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal will meet in Cairo this week despite the unrest rocking Egypt, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday.

The meeting between the exiled Hamas leader and Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah movement, will go ahead "as scheduled on Thursday," Hamas official Ismail Radwan told AFP.