Interim Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq had stepped down at the time Egyptian opposition activists have been calling for another million-man march on Friday

Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq have surprisingly announced on Thursday his resignation which was accepted by military rulers, an army statement read.

Shafiq who is seen by protesters as a symbol of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime will be replaced by Essam Sharaf, a former minister who took part in the mass demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square which led to Mubarak's resignation on February 11 after three decades in power.
  
Since Mubarak's ouster on February 11, Egyptians have called on the ruling military to hand over power to a civilian government elected by the people. They have also urged the release of all political detainees and the disbandment of military courts.

The council has previously ordered the government to run the country's affairs for six months "or until the end of parliamentary and presidential elections" and is also examining constitutional reforms.

Earlier, Egyptian opposition activists have been calling for another million-man march on Friday to pressure Shafiq to step down at the time two senior opposition leaders have been released.

The call comes as a military tribunal has sentenced a man who took part in last Friday's anti-government protests to 5 years in prison. An Egyptian rights organization says the man was convicted and sentenced in an unfair trial, which only took five minutes.

Thousands of Egyptians protested in downtown Cairo last Friday, demanding that the government be purged of all remnants of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Two senior members of Egypt's opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, were released on Wednesday, a day after a sit-in in front of the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, a new constitution which has undergone 10 major changes is planned to be put to a referendum on March 19.

Eng Khairat al-Shater, the deputy chairman of main opposition group Muslim Brotherhood, and the group's executive member Hassan Malek were released on Wednesday, al-Jazeera television reported. A military tribunal had sentenced Shater and Malek to seven and five years in jail respectively.

Egyptians have frequently called for the disbandment of the military courts, which “unjustly” issued prison sentences for opposition activists during Mubarak's three-decade rule.