Reuters reports: Protesters demanding a swift presidential election and an early handover of power by the army threw stones at police guarding the Egyptian interior ministry on Sunday and were forced back with volleys of teargas.

It was the fourth day of clashes outside the ministry, during which seven people have died. Protesters accuse the ministry of failing to prevent the deaths last week of 74 people after a football match in Port Said. Five more people have died in Suez.

Some protesters believe that remnants of the Mubarak regime were behind the violence, which was triggered by a pitch invasion after a football match between Al Ahly and Al Masri on Wednesday. They see it as part of a plot to create chaos in an attempt by the old guard to reassert its influence.

Political figures and a civilian advisory body to the military have suggested bringing the presidential vote forward to April or May, from the June date foreseen in the transition timetable of the army, which took power after former president Hosni Mubarak quit.

Police and protesters, some waving Al Ahly flags, threw stones at each other and police fired volleys of teargas to push the lines of mostly young protesters back from the ministry building on Sunday.