"It is clear that the Egyptian government is going to have to take some real concrete steps in order to meet the threshold that the people of Egypt require from their government," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at his daily news conference.
"I think unless, or until that progress takes hold, you're going to see the continued pictures that all of us are watching out of Cairo and of over cities throughout Egypt," Gibbs told reporters.
"It is clear that the government has not taken the necessary steps that the people of Egypt need to see. That's why more and more people come out to register their grievances. But our notion of when the transition needed to have started hasn't changed. What the people of Egypt seek in those grievances hasn't changed. What has to change is the posture of the government in addressing what the people of Egypt need to see," he said.
Asking Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman to expand the scope of discussions and negotiations with the protestors, Gibbs said, "The best way to do that is for Vice President Suleiman, as the head of this process representing the Egyptian government is to expand the size and scope of the discussions and the negotiations with those that are not in power, and to take many of the steps -- lifting emergency law, constitutional changes -- so that we get toward free and fair elections."
On Tuesday, US Vice President Joe Biden had called Suleiman and had said that an orderly transition must begin now, that it must produce without delay immediate and irreversible progress. "I think it is clear that what the government has so far put forward has yet to meet a minimum threshold for the people of Egypt. That's why many of you reported the crowds in yesterday's protests were bigger than even those on Friday," he said.
Referring to the comments made by Suleiman about the transition process, Gibbs said the US does not agree with it. Acknowledging that transition to democracy in Egypt was not going to be easy Gibbs said, "The process for this transition does not appear to be in line with the people of Egypt, and I think we believe that more has to be done and I think, more importantly, the people of Egypt think more has to be done. I think the US vice president was clear with Suleiman on some steps that needed to be taken to address the concerns that we see."
Noting that Suleiman is in charge of a process in representing the Egyptian government to negotiate with those not in government in order to get on a path towards an orderly transition that ends in a free and fair election, Gibbs said it is not for the US to determine who's in charge of that process with the Egyptian government.
"It's not for us to determine who sits in a room representing the opposition -- except for us to understand that when unrest grows and the size of these crowds grows, it's clear that the threshold of meeting a broad-based coalition that represents a broad-based coalition of civil society, that's not been reached. I think that is what continues to be the problem," he said.
