The United Nations, the European Union and the United States on Thursday condemned violent attacks by supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak against journalists and rights activists amidst the country’s mass demonstrations.

“This is outrageous and totally unacceptable, it must stop now," UN Chief Ban Ki-moon said after a meeting in Berlin. Ban expressed “particular concern about the intimidations and the restrictions on international media in Cairo.”

Echoing a wave of international concern over worsening violence in Egypt, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton "condemned in the strongest terms" attacks on reporters covering the unrest, peaceful protesters, human rights activists, and foreigners.

"The Egyptian government must demonstrate its willingness to ensure journalists' ability to report on these events to the people of Egypt and to the world," Clinton said in Washington.

The Washington Post said its Cairo bureau chief and a photographer had been detained on Thursday. Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, ABC News, CNN, France 2, France 24, Radio-Canada, Le Soir have also all been targeted.

Dutch journalist organisation NVJ on Thursday discouraged reporters from traveling to Egypt, calling the situation there “very risky.”

Supporters of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party also surrounded the Ramses Hilton Hotel in Cairo, where many foreign journalists are staying.

Three French reporters detained during anti-regime protests in Egypt were blindfolded and interrogated for 15 hours before being released in the middle of the night, their employer said Friday.

The journalists from TF1, France's biggest private TV broadcaster, were detained in Cairo on Thursday morning by armed men in civilian clothes and taken to an unknown destination, the channel said.

Amnesty International said in a statement that its staff present at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, a key Egyptian human rights organisation, had been raided by the security forces.

"The Egyptian authorities must ensure that protesters, journalists and human rights activists are protected. The lack of police on the ground responding to the violence is a blatant sign of the complicity of the Egyptian government in the violence, or at best the total abdication of responsibility for law and order at a moment of national crisis," Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said.

Humanitarian organisation Oxfam Novib said that two Egyptian directors from its partner organisations have been picked up by the local military police.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she had expressed "great concern over the unacceptable attacks on peaceful demonstrators" in a phone call from Brussels to Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman on Thursday.

‘FRIDAY OF DEPARTURE’

Egyptians fighting to oust Mubarak hoped to rally a million people on Friday as the United States worked to convince the 82-year-old leader to begin handing over power.

A senior Us official, who declined to be named, said on Thursday Washington was discussing with Egyptians different scenarios, including one in which Mubarak resigned immediately.

Mubarak, however, speaking in an interview with ABC television on Thursday, said he believed his country still needed him.

"If I resign today, there will be chaos," Mubarak, who has promised to step down in September, said. Asked to comment on calls for him to resign, he said: "I don't care what people say about me. Right now I care about my country."

In Cairo's Tahrir Square -- the hub of protests now into their 11th day -- thousands who had defied a curfew and attacks on Wednesday by pro-Mubarak supporters -- were preparing for a rally they had dubbed the "Friday of Departure".

According to UN estimates, more than 300 people have died since the unrest broke out on January 25, with close to 4,000 injured.