Outsider tag could be ElBaradei's millstone

CAIRO: Egyptians on the streets of Cairo said they had reservations about opposition leader Mohamed El-Baradei, who has offered to act as transitional leader to prepare Egypt for democratic elections.

ElBaradei said he had a mandate from opposition groups to make contact with the army and negotiate a government of national unity. An opposition party, Arab nationalist Karama Party of Hamdin Sabahi, has rejected ElBaradei as a transitional figure, saying he was trying to jump on the bandwagon of popular uprising.

ElBaradei's cosmopolitanism he lived abroad for years is a source of suspicion among others.

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