The Philippines said Friday it would keep its 340 peacekeepers in the Golan Heights provided it gets requested additional heavier weapons and protection.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino would reject a proposal to pull the Filipinos out if the United Nations met his requests to boost security, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement.

An Egyptian soldier was killed early Friday in coordinated rocket and machinegun attacks by Islamist militants on army checkpoints and a police base in the restive Sinai, medics said.

The soldier was killed when the militants fired on an army checkpoint near the north Sinai village of al-Gura, medics said, adding two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Egypt's military appealed for conciliation and warned against revenge attacks, after it toppled president Mohammed Morsi, as police rounded up senior Islamists ahead of planned rallies by Morsi's supporters on Friday.

The military published the statement on its spokesman's Facebook page as scores were injured in clashes between the Islamist Morsi's supporters and opponents in the Nile Delta ahead of the planned rallies.

The United States on Thursday pressed Egyptian officials to avoid the "arbitrary arrests" of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and his supporters, an administration official said.

Members of President Barack Obama's national security team have also stressed the importance of a "quick and responsible return" to elected civilian government in Cairo, in contacts with Egyptian officials and Washington's regional partners, the U.S. official said, on condition of anonymity.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Thursday told Egypt's foreign minister that there must be a "quick return" to civilian rule in the country after the military ousted president Mohammed Morsi, a spokeswoman said.

Ban also renewed international criticism of the military action against Egypt's first freely elected leader when he held talks with Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, said U.N. spokeswoman Eri Kaneko.

Anger gave way to gloom on Thursday as Islamists rallied at a Cairo mosque where thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsi said they felt under siege and betrayed by the army.

Pictures of the ousted leader hung on walls, as protesters chanted against the military that removed Morsi from his post and outlined a roadmap for a political transition.

The African Union will meet Friday to discuss the crisis in Egypt, with delegates seen likely to suspend Cairo in line with strict rules against unconstitutional changes of government, officials said.

The pan-African bloc's Peace and Security Council will meet Friday morning at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital to discuss the ousting of president Mohammed Morsi, the organisation said on Thursday.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday condemned the military coup that has ousted Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, calling it a "U.S.-led conspiracy."

"We condemn the military coup against Egypt's first democratically elected and legitimate president," the Brotherhood's shura advisory council said in a statement on its website after what is said was an emergency meeting.

An alliance of Islamist parties and movements including ousted president Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has called for "peaceful protests" on Friday to denounce the military's overthrow of the Islamist president.

The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy called for "peaceful protests on Friday in all of Egypt's provinces to denounce the military coup against legitimacy and in support of the legitimacy of President Morsi".

President Moncef Marzouki on Thursday ruled out the risk of Tunisia's elected authorities being deposed, after Egypt's army ousted its head of state, while stressing the need to "pay attention" to popular demands.

"Could Tunisia witness the same (Egyptian) scenario? I don't think so, because it's missing the fundamental ingredients. Here we have a professional, republican army that has never got mixed up with politics," he said.