Opposition rallies to ElBaradei as Armed reinforces in Cairo

Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood and the secular opposition banded together Sunday around a famous government critic to confer for forces seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, as the military struggled to hold a capital seized by fears of chaos and buoyed by euphoria that three decades of Mr. Mubarak's rule may be coming to an end.

The declaration that the critic, Mohamed ElBaradei, would symbolize a loosely unified opposition reconfigured the struggle between Mr. Mubarak's government and a six-day-old rebellion bent on driving him and his party from power.

Though missing deep support on his own, Dr. ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and diplomat could serve up a consensus figure for a movement that has struggled to articulate a program for a potential transition. It suggested, too, that the opposition was aware of the uprising's image overseas, putting forth a candidate who might be more satisfactory to the West than beloved in Egypt.