The United States has sent a veteran diplomat to restive Egypt to meet top officials, as it looked past President Hosni Mubarak's rule and urged a political "transition."
The New York Times reported that Frank Wisner, a former ambassador to Egypt, would in fact meet with Mubarak directly, as the US believed it would be "useful" to get the president's perspective.
Top American spokesmen insisted that it was not up to the United States to call for the Arab strongman's ouster amid mass protests, but their careful choice of language clearly and gingerly envisaged a post-Mubarak Egypt.
The daily said officials would not say whether Wisner would be urging Mubarak to leave office or bringing a specific message from the United States.
But one senior official told the paper, "When you have old friends get together, it's a two-way conversation."
Wisner, the hugely experienced ex-ambassador to Cairo, will report his view of the volatile situation to Washington, which is delicately navigating a crisis with deep implications for its Middle Eastern policy.
But officials stopped short of describing Wisner as an official envoy, and said he would carry a message no different from that already delivered publicly and privately by Obama administration officials.
Wisner "will have the opportunity to reinforce what we've already said," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.
"Given his expertise, we have asked him to add his perspective to our analysis on current developments... And we look forward to hearing his views when he returns."
In another possible sign that the White House is gaming out possible future political scenarios in Egypt, senior national security officials met a group of American foreign policy analysts with expertise in the region.
And the administration pressed home its calibrated public line on the mass protests sweeping Egypt, seemingly seeking to show solidarity with protesters demanding democracy while also avoiding sparking a backlash against US intervention.
"There must be an orderly transition," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
"There have to be meaningful negotiations with a broad cross-section of the Egyptian people including opposition groups that go to answering the very core of the freedoms that people desire.
"I do believe orderly transition means change, and what we've advocated from the very beginning is that the way Egypt looks and operates must change," he added.
But Gibbs also took extreme pains to avoid calling for Mubarak's ouster, in a nation where suspicion of the United States runs high, partly due to the authoritarian government's close security relationship with Washington.
"That is not for our government to determine. That is for the people of Egypt to determine," Gibbs said.
Senior US officials warned Mubarak over the weekend that his changes to his cabinet line-up were not sufficient, and called for free and fair elections in a nation run by the stalwart US ally for three decades.
President Barack Obama has been repeatedly briefed on the crisis, and he has spoken about Egypt to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with Bahrain's King Hamad to stress Washington's "strong focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint," a White House statement said.
Officials have warned they would review the US aid package in light of events in Egypt, the second largest recipient of US foreign assistance at close to $2 billion each year, including $1.3 billion in military aid. But they have said that so far, there is no question of cutting it.
As Washington walked its diplomatic tightrope, Egypt's all-powerful army vowed not to fire on protesters, and new Vice President Omar Suleiman offered an "immediate" dialogue with the opposition.
Anti-Mubarak campaigners called a general strike for Tuesday and planned a "march of a million" in Cairo after a week of revolt in which at least 125 people have been killed.
Gibbs urged restraint on the part of the government and hoped the day of confrontation would pass off without violence.
More than 1,200 US nationals and their families have already left the country on nine flights headed for Larnaca in Cyprus, Istanbul and Athens, officials said as countries around the globe increased evacuations.