In a bid to placate pro-democracy activists, the reshuffle late on Sunday named several Mubarak opponents but disappointed those eager for a new line-up as key defence, foreign, justice, interior and finance portfolios were left unchanged.

Egypt’s new military rulers, who took over after an 18-day uprising ended 30 years of Mubarak’s iron rule, have said change in the constitution for elections in six months should be ready soon and hated emergency laws would be lifted before the polls. But for many democracy advocates, who want a completely new cabinet with no links to Mubarak’s corrupt and autocratic elite to govern the Arab world’s most populous nation, the military needs to put fresh faces in office.

“No one offered us any post and had they done so, we would have refused because we request what the public demands that this government quit as it is part of the former regime,” said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood.

“We want a new technocratic government that has no connection with the old era,” he said. The Brotherhood is represented on a constitutional change committee, a council to protect the revolution and will register as soon as new rules allow.