"The accusations read as if they're a retaliation from the old regime, signaling 'We're back in full force," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said.

He also dismissed as "ridiculous" accusations leveled by the authorities against Morsi that included killing soldiers and conspiring with the Palestinian group Hamas.

"They are not taken seriously at all. We are continuing our protests on the streets. In fact we believe that more people will realize what this regime really represents - a return of the old state of Mubarak, with brute force.”

El-Haddad’s remarks came following the Egyptian Army warn to the supporters of Morsi in which the army has called the opposition to join the "national ranks" till Saturday or face an expected crackdown, while potentially huge rival rallies have been called for Friday by the military and Islamists.

"The general commander of the armed forces has given a 48-hour deadline for a back down and to join the national ranks," the army said in a statement late Thursday, quoted by the state-run Middle East News Agency, without explicitly naming Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

In the statement, entitled the "last chance," the army said that after the mass rallies called by army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi on Friday, the military would adopt a new strategy against "violence and ... terrorism."

Al-Sissi, who led Morsi's overthrow on July 3, has called on Egyptians to take to the streets to give the army a mandate to crack down on alleged "violence and terrorism."

NJF/NJF