The Muslim Brotherhood have turned down the offer of the transitional government to take over future ministerial positions:”We do not make common cause with the rebels.”

Amid reports that the Muslim Brotherhood is to be offered positions in the transitional cabinet, a spokesman for the movement said: “We do not deal with putschists. We reject all that comes from this coup.”

Egypt’s new interim prime minister Hazem el Beblawi said he would start work on forming his new cabinet on Wednesday, first meeting liberal leaders Mohamed ElBaradei and Ziad Bahaa-Eldin.

The new leader said he accepted that it would be difficult to win the unanimous support of Egyptians for his new government.

The ousting of Mohamed Morsi a week ago by the military, after mass protests calling for his resignation, has prompted widespread violence in the divided country, with dozens of lives already claimed.

Mr Beblawi, a liberal economist and former finance minister, was appointed prime minister by interim president Adly Mansour on Tuesday. He also made Nobel peace laureate Mr ElBaradei interim vice president responsible for foreign affairs.

Mr Mansour also set a timetable to hold elections early next year as part of a new charter to try to halt the unrest.

However this has since been shunned by the Muslim Brotherhood while the National Salvation Front, the main liberal coalition that called for Mr Morsi’s overthrow, has demanded amendments – stopping short of rejecting the plan outright.

Tamarod, the movement that spearheaded the grassroots campaign against the former president, complained that it had not been consulted on the transition plan announced by Mr Mansour and would also make proposals for changes to the blueprint.

The decree gives the country five months to amend the Islamist-drafted constitution suspended on Mr Morsi’s ouster and ratify it in a referendum.

Parliamentary elections will then by early 2014 and Mr Mansour will announce a date for a presidential election once the new parliament has convened.

The continued standoff with Mr Morsi’s loyalists, who demand the reinstatement of Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, has exacerbated fears of further bloodshed after his overthrow.

In the worst incident on July 3, at least 51 people, most of them supporters of the ousted Islamist, died in clashes outside a military barracks in Cairo.