Egypt's Sisi is sworn in as President

Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in Sunday as Egypt's president, formalising his de facto rule since he deposed the elected Islamist last year and crushed his supporters.

Sisi, who overwhelmingly won a presidential election last month, took his oath of office at the heavily guarded Constitutional Court at 0730 GMT.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Arab royals from the Gulf and African leaders will later attend a reception at Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace.

Soldiers and police deployed in force in the capital in anticipation of protests by ousted president Mohamed Morsi's battered Muslim Brotherhood movement and possible militant attacks.

At the Constitutional Court, elite policemen stood guard as helicopters were used to drop posters of Sisi on dozens of well-wishers who turned up to see the retired field marshal.

"I'm here to congratulate Sisi, the man who rescued us from terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood," said one flag-waving supporter, Amira Ahmed.

Only a few meters away from the court is the military hospital where toppled president Hosni Mubarak used to be hospitalized.

A few kilometers away is also the prison where Morsi is reportedly kept pending his trial on a wide range of charges, including spying and incitement to murder.

The government has announced Sunday a day-off for the nation's more than 6 million civil servants in a bid, according to observers, to control security in the overcrowded Egyptian metropolis of more than 16 million inhabitants.

Sisi won the May 26-28 election with 96.9 percent of the vote, in a crushing defeat for his only rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi. Turnout was 47.5 percent.

The lopsided victory came nearly a year after Sisi toppled Morsi after millions protested to demand an end to the Islamist's single year of turbulent rule.

Morsi's now banned Muslim Brotherhood, whose supporters have been crushed by a massive crackdown, had called for a boycott of the vote.

Sisi's main challenges will be to restore stability and revive the economy after three years of turmoil, following a 2011 uprising that ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak.

In a televised address after his victory was announced on Tuesday, Sisi called on Egyptians to "work to return security to this nation".

"The future is a blank page, and it is in our hands to fill with what we want... bread, freedom, human dignity, social justice," he said.

But Sisi's opponents fear that under his rule, Egypt will return to an autocratic regime worse than under Mubarak.

Since Morsi's ouster, the crackdown by the military-installed authorities on his supporters has killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands behind bars.

In the run-up to the election, Sisi said that "national security" takes precedence over democratic freedoms.

He will be the fifth Egyptian president to rise from the ranks of the military, and is expected to reassert the army's grip on politics.

'Universal rights'

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who opposed Morsi's Brotherhood, called for a donor conference to help Egypt after the results were announced.

The oil kingpin will be represented at the swearing-in ceremony by Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, alongside the rulers of Kuwait and Bahrain.

Western nations, which congratulated Sisi on his election win while stressing the importance of safeguarding human rights, are sending low-level officials or will be represented by ambassadors.

The United States has voiced concerns about "the restrictive political environment" during the vote, urging Sisi to show "commitment to the protection of the universal rights of all Egyptians".

Senior State Department official Thomas Shannon will represent Washington at the inauguration of the president in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation and a strategic regional partner.

Sunday has been declared a national holiday for state employees to allow them to take part in celebrations for the inauguration.

Representatives from Qatar, Turkey, Tunisia and Israel have not been invited to the proceedings.

Here are a few social media reactions to his swearing in ceremony: