WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior American official says that the special envoy dispatched to Egypt by President Barak Obama told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the U.S. saw his presidency at an end and urged him to prepare for an orderly transition to real democracy with elections.

The official said Tuesday that the message was delivered to Mubarak on Monday by Frank Wisner, a respected former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, whom Obama dispatched to Cairo amid mounting anti-government protests and demands for the Egyptian leader to step down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the ongoing diplomacy.

Wisner and Mubarak are friends and the official said the retired ambassador made clear that it was the U.S "view that his tenure as president is coming to close.

CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian state television says President Hosni Mubarak will make an important speech shortly, at the end of a day when a quarter-million people turned in the largest protest yet to demand his ouster.