The death toll in three days of clashes in Cairo and other Egyptian cities between police and protesters against army rule rose to 22 on Monday, threatening to disrupt the first free parliamentary elections in decades.

The military generals were feted as champions of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February, but the violence since Saturday when police moved to break up a sit-in Cairo's Tahrir Square has underlined growing hostility to their continued control.

Yearning for stability

"I've seen the police beat women my mother's age. I want military rule to end," said 21-year-old Mohamed Gamal. "I will just go home in the evening to change my clothes and return."

Witnesses said that after dawn on Monday, police attacked a makeshift hospital but were driven back by protesters who smashed pavements and hurled the chunks of concrete at them.

"Don't go out there, you'll end up martyrs like the others," protesters told people emerging from Tahrir's subway station into the square, where around 4,000 had gathered by midday.

Sectarian clashes, an exodus of tourists and labour unrest since Mubarak's overthrow, have throttled the economy and left many ordinary Egyptians yearning for stability.

The army insists the violence will not delay the election, due in just over a week, but it could undermine its legitimacy.

State media said 22 people had died and hundreds had been wounded in clashes since Friday over a demonstration begun by Islamists but since dominated by the young activists who brought down Mubarak.

Some in Egypt, including the Islamists who expect a strong showing at the polls, say the fragile state of security is part of an army tactic to stay in power.

Finland's Foreign Minister, visiting Tahrir Square on Monday, said images and reports of the violence in Cairo were "indefensible".

"Is this a provocation to try and stop the democratic process and the elections? It is very important that the elections begin next week," he said.

The army has denied it wants to stay in charge and insists it can ensure security during the vote.

Swifter transition needed

Egyptians elect a new parliament in a staggered vote that starts on November 28, but presidential powers remain with the army until a presidential poll, which may not happen until late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition.

Security forces burned down banners and Internet clips, which could not be independently checked, showed police beating protesters with sticks, pulling them by the hair and, in one case, dumping what appeared to be a corpse on piles of rubbish.

Presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist, told protesters: "We are demanding as the minimum that power be handed over within six months."

Analysts say a surge in violence during the vote, a common feature of elections in Mubarak's era of rigged polls, could undermine the assembly's legitimacy if the result is questioned and deepen frustration at the army's handling of the transition.

Presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei and Abdallah al-Ashaal denounced violence against protesters and called for a national salvation government, state news agency MENA said.