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Hundreds of thousands of jubilant protesters danced in the streets of Cairo Friday, cheering, setting off fireworks, and shedding more than a few tears of relief at the ousting of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The country's vice-president went on national television to announce that Mubarak was stepping down as president and handing over control to an interim military council.

"The people have toppled the regime," chanted protesters, who were celebrating late into the night.

The brief statement by Vice President Omar Suleiman was met by a roar of approval by the huge crowd of demonstrators who have occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand Mubarak's departure.

"This is the happiest day in my generation," Ali al-Tayab, a demonstrator who paid tribute to those who died in clashes with Mubarak supporters, told The Associated Press. "To the martyrs, this is your day."

Thousands gathered at a presidential palace in Cairo, where demonstrators flashed the V-for-victory sign, shouting "Be happy, Egyptians, today is a feast" and "He stepped down."

Some handed out candy. Others prayed and declared: "God is great."

The army, who backed the people, leading to Mubarak's resignation, were greeted with love from their fellow citizens.

Some soldiers stationed at Tahrir Square celebrated in the crowd, and demonstrators lifted them on their soldiers.

Other troops stayed at their post, and Egyptians took pictures with them in front of tanks. Children ran up onto the vehicles.

"It's an incredible scene, where the military is very much . . . with the people, there is no doubt of that," CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Martin Seemungal reported from Cairo Friday.

"It's not just the people in the square it's everyone in this area -- people who aren't even down in that square are cheering, they are honking horns, it is an incredible scene here right now."

"Given what's gone on the last two weeks, there's been so much tension down there and now it's like a wave of joy coming out of that square and its unbelievable."

Outside Mubarak's Oruba Palace in northern Cairo, a crowd of tens of thousands chanted "the people ousted the president."

Mubarak left office on the 18th day of demonstrations by anti-government protesters and until the end seemed unable to grasp the depth of resentment over his three decades of authoritarian rule.

He had been widely expected to resign a day earlier, but in a televised speech Thursday shocked the thousands of protesters who had marched on his palaces and occupied central Cairo by refusing to step down until September.

A tense and uncertain day followed across Egypt, until the news spread that Mubarak had travelled to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh, about 400 kilometres from Cairo.

Moments after the announcement of Mubarak's departure, protester Ahmed Nazmi struggled to talk over the cheers of the crowd in Tahrir Square and describe the elation of the scene around him.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," he said. "If you've ever held your breath when you felt like you couldn't breathe anymore, and then suddenly it's just a giant, gasping breath of air -- that's the feeling right now. It's incredible."

Leading Egyptian democracy advocate and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said "this is the greatest day of my life. The country has been liberated after decades of repression."

Mubarak had made many efforts to quell the unrest as the protests raged since late January: He replaced his cabinet, said he would not run in the forthcoming elections and his government said it would raise wages for government workers.

But the protesters were undeterred and Patrick Basham, director of the Washington-based Democracy Institute, said the Egyptian military finally pushed the president out.

"The military, upon which he depended and would have depended for his continuation in power, had simply had enough. They had read the writing on the wall," Basham told Â鶹ӰÊÓ Channel. "They decided that they needed to move against him."

Basham said it is still not clear who will succeed Mubarak and cautioned that many of those who helped keep him in power for three decades will remain, at least for the time being.

"We have to remember that the defence minister, the gentleman who has taken over and is going to run the military transition, is known in Egypt as Mubarak's poodle," he said. "All of this is to say that the people who are running Egypt are the very same people – with the exception of Mubarak – who were running Egypt yesterday. They may not be in power for much longer, but they just may."

The vice-president said a military council will run the nation's affairs until a presidential election, promised for September.

The revelers in Egypt were joined by thousands more in countries across the Middle East, from Beirut to Gaza.

Even in Israel, which had watched the uprising against Mubarak with some concern, a former Cabinet minister said Mubarak did the right thing.

"The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It's good that he did what he did," said former Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well.

Some in Israel fear the unrest could spread to neighbouring Jordan, the only other Arab country that has a peace deal with Israel, or to the Palestinian territories.

Governments in the region -- from Israel to Tunisia, Jordan and Iraq -- withheld comment on Friday's dramatic developments.

The success of Egypt's protesters in ousting a longtime ruler came less than a month after a pro-democracy movement in Tunisia pushed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.

And the breakneck speed of developments, after decades of authoritarian rule, left some of those celebrating Friday wondering where regime change might come next.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Mubarak's resignation was the beginning, not the end, of Egypt's transition to democracy.

"The people of Egypt have spoken," Obama said, adding that "nothing less than genuine democracy" will satisfy the Egyptian people's hunger for change.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will be pushing for free and fair elections in Egypt and respect for the rule of law.

"We are all seeing what's happening," Harper said, speaking during a brief visit to Newfoundland. "In my judgment there's no going back. I think the old expression is: 'They're not going to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one.' "

The 82-year-old Mubarak had held power in Egypt since 1981, when he took over for the late president Anwar Sadat who was assassinated while in office.

Mubarak had served as Sadat's vice president and took the slain president's place after he was killed.

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press