Egypt’s military regime warned yesterday that a wave of strikes sweeping the country was “disastrous,” as it gave a panel of civilian experts 10 days to revise the constitution.

Against a backdrop of persistent nationwide walk-walkouts and street protests, the junta promised to rapidly restore constitutional rule following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces instructed an eight-strong panel of jurists and scholars to “amend all articles as it sees fit to guarantee democracy and the integrity of presidential and parliamentary elections.”

The panel “must finish its work in a period of no longer than 10 days after the date of this decision,” and must strike down the articles giving presidents unlimited terms in office and the right to refer cases to military courts.

The military took power on Friday when Mr Mubarak’s near 30-year rule was brought to an end by an 18-day street revolt. Since then, Egyptian workers have begun testing the bounds of their new freedom with strikes.

On Sunday, the military suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament, but it has promised to oversee a six-month transition to democratic rule. It urged strikers to return to work but stopped short of ordering them to do so.

“The Supreme Council is aware of the economic and social circumstances society is undergoing, but these issues cannot be resolved before the strikes and sit-ins end,” state news agency MENA quoted the military as saying.

“The result of that will be disastrous.”

The constitutional panel got straight down to work.

“The armed forces want to hand over power as soon as possible. They want amendments to the constitution,” said panel member Sobhi Saleh, a lawyer and former lawmaker from Islamist opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood.

“We are revising the constitution to remove all restrictions and obstacles, and to meet the aspirations of the revolution’s and the people’s demands.”

The committee is headed by Tareq al-Bishri, a respected former head of Egypt’s administrative court, and includes jurists and constitutional experts from a broad cross-section of communities.

The strikes and protests abated yesterday as Egyptians marked the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, but threaten to flare again as people use their new-found freedom to press long-suppressed grievances.

The central bank decided to keep banks closed until at least Sunday and the stock exchange will also remain shut.

The Muslim Brotherhood – which was banned but broadly tolerated under Mr Mubarak – confirmed that it plans to form an official political party to contest promised parliamentary elections.

Egypt’s best organised opposition group fielded candidates as independents under the slogan “Islam is the solution” in 2005 elections, winning around 20 per cent of the seats.

But it boycotted the second round of elections last year after failing to win a single seat in the first round amid widespread reports of violence and vote-rigging on behalf of the ruling party.