CAIRO, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of protesters packed Tahrir Square in Cairo Tuesday, preparing for the "march of millions" to demand President Hosni Mubarak's resignation.

Government troops were posted at major locations and Internet service was cut as the activists vowed to protest in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities a week after initial calls for Mubarak to end his three decades as president began, CNN reported.

Mubarak, 82, hasn't signaled he planned to cede power, and the Interior Ministry said Monday it would shut down mobile phone networks to prepare for Tuesday's protests. Banks, the stock market and schools were closed, and an oft-ignored curfew was set to try to keep streets clear after 3 p.m., local time. The country's airspace was closed and nationwide train service was suspended during curfew hours.

Some activists communicated through old dial-up Internet services reached through international phone numbers, the Los Angeles Times said. Others posted Twitter messages by calling an international number and leaving a voicemail message that was then posted on Twitter through a new "speak-to-tweet" service developed with Google.

An Egyptian official told the London-based Saudi paper Asharq al-Awsat Mubarak does not intend to step aside, despite the anti-government fervor, the Los Angeles Times reported. The official said Mubarak will remain Egypt's president and will not cede position to his new vice president Omar Suleiman.

"Mubarak is closely following the developments so he can remain in control of the domestic security situation," the official was quoted as saying. "The president is a soldier who does not intend to run away from the battle."

Tuesday will be "a very dramatic and perhaps even a decisive day," Nicholas Burns, a diplomacy professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a former U.S. undersecretary of state, told CNN. "If the military cracks down on peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Alexandria or Cairo, that will be a decisive factor."

The military said Monday it would not open fire on peaceful protesters, various media reported.

A uniformed military spokesman declared on state television, "(The) armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people," saying the military understood "the legitimacy of your (protesters') demands" and "affirms that freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody."

Human Rights Watch staff said the organization confirmed 80 deaths from two hospitals in Cairo, 36 deaths in Alexandria and 13 fatalities in Suez.

Mubarak fired his Cabinet on Saturday and named Suleiman, his longtime intelligence chief, as vice president, the first time he filled the position since coming into power in 1981. Suleiman said Monday he started discussing reform with opposition parties, saying on state television that a reform package should be developed "expeditiously," CNN reported. No other details were available.

The U.S. State Department dispatched veteran diplomat Frank Wisner, a former ambassador in Cairo and elsewhere, to meet Mubarak and other officials, The New York Times said.

The Washington Post said Wisner was there to explain personally the Obama administration wanted an "orderly transition" of the government and was not impressed with Mubarak's response to the protests.

The White House wants Mubarak's departure "sooner rather than later," the Post reported. The European Union also called for "free and fair elections" in Egypt.

The U.S. State Department said Monday it hoped to evacuate at least 900 more U.S. citizens on at least six more government-organized airlifts Tuesday. The announcement was before Egypt closed its airspace.

Washington evacuated about 1,200 Americans on nine flights Monday, joining governments of more than a dozen countries in evacuating citizens from Egypt.