Friday protests in Tahrir Square

ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION

Thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to express their opposition to a draft constitution they say is being imposed on Egypt by the country's Islamist President, Mohamed Mursi.

On Thursday night, an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of the new document to end a crisis over Mursi's newly-expanded powers.

In an interview broadcast on state television on Thursday, Mursi said a controversial decree halting court challenges to his decisions, which sparked eight days of protests and violence by Egyptians calling him a new dictator, was "for an exceptional stage", aimed at speeding up the democratic transition.

He said the decree would expire as soon as the constitution was approved in a referendum.

But the opposition has cried foul. Liberals, leftists, Christians, more moderate Muslims and others had withdrawn from the assembly, saying their voices were not being heard.