Egypt's interior minister pledged on Saturday that protests calling for the reinstatement of ousted president Mohammed Morsi would be dispersed "soon," as police blamed the latest deadly clashes on Islamists.

Speaking at a news conference, Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said security forces would act "in a legal fashion" to disperse the demonstrations "as soon as possible."

A long-running sit-in in Cairo by supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi will be ended "in the framework of the law," Egypt's Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said early Saturday.

In a telephone interview with satellite television station Al-Hayat, he was asked about the sit-in at Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square.

Rising anti-Syrian rhetoric and arbitrary arrests are pushing a growing number of Syrian war exiles in Egypt to seek U.N. protection, the world body's refugee agency said Friday.

UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters that there was "growing and disturbing anti-Syrian sentiment" in Egypt, raising fears among the refugee community.

The United States has decided not to call the overthrow of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi a coup, which would have forced it to freeze $1.5 billion in mainly military aid, an official said Friday.

"The law does not require us to make a formal determination as to whether a coup took place, and it is not in our national interest to make such a determination," a senior administration official told Agence France Presse, in a further sign that Washington has no intention of slashing its aid to Cairo.

Clashes broke out between supporters and opponents of ousted president Mohammed Morsi in the Cairo neighborhood of Shubra on Friday, witnesses told Agence France Presse.

The clashes erupted early in the afternoon, the witnesses said. Live footage on satellite station ONTV showed crowds throwing rocks at each other in the neighborhood.

Five people were killed in clashes Friday between supporters of Egypt's military and deposed president Mohammed Morsi's loyalists in Alexandria, state media reported.

Police have intervened to break up the clashes in the Mediterranean city, in which at least 72 people were injured, many with gunshot wounds, the reports said.

Ousted president Mohammed Morsi's last prime minister proposed on Thursday a plan to ease tensions in Egypt, as the Islamist leader's loyalists braced for a showdown with the military.

Hisham Qandil, who has kept a low profile since Morsi's overthrow on July 3, proposed in a video posted on YouTube the release of prisoners since the coup and allowing a delegation to visit Morsi, detained by the army.

Militants killed two Egyptian soldiers and wounded four in a shooting in north Sinai on Thursday, as the military vowed to crack down on "terrorism", officials said.

The army officer and conscript were killed when gunmen opened fire on a military checkpoint near the town of Sheikh Zuwayid, security officials and medics said.

Egypt's military insisted Thursday that Islamists were not being targeted by its chief's call for an anti-terrorism rally, which the ousted Muslim Brotherhood has denounced as a declaration of civil war.

"General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's call was not a threat to any political group in particular," the military spokesman said in a statement.

Egypt was on edge Thursday ahead of rival protests by the military and Islamists, as the government declared a "war on terrorism" to end violence convulsing the country since president Mohammed Morsi's overthrow.

Police said they were planning massive reinforcements to secure Friday's rallies, which raise the prospect of further bloodshed between Islamists demanding Morsi's reinstatement and an array of opponents including the military.