Egypt military blames Muslim Brotherhood for woes

By the Brotherhood's count, Morsi took 52 percent of the vote to Shafiq's 48 percent. The claim was based on the group's own compilation of election officials' returns from nearly all polling centers. The Brotherhood's early partial counts proved generally accurate in last month's first round of the presidential election.

Shafiq rejected those figures.

The Brotherhood said Morsi met Thursday with representatives of different revolutionary groups and public figures in an attempt to rally support against the military's moves, which they called a "military coup."

Morsi also consulted by phone with Mohamed ElBaradei, a pro-democracy leader, a prominent Brotherhood figure, Mohammed el-Beltagy, wrote on his Facebook page. ElBaradei, a secular leader, was seen as a major spark of last year's popular uprising. He has had little contact with the Brotherhood since.

"We are on the verge of a new phase to reformulate a unifying national project," el-Beltagy wrote.