"There is no truth to reports that former President Hosni Mubarak has left Egypt for Tabuk in Saudi Arabia," the country's military rulers said in the Web statement. "He is under house arrest, with his family, in Egypt," it said.

The council has ruled Egypt since Mubarak was forced to quit on Feb. 11 after 18 days of massive street protests against his 30-year rule.

The military rulers also announced Monday that Egypt's hated emergency laws will be lifted before parliamentary elections set for September. The laws have been in place since 1981, when Mubarak took power. They give police near-unlimited powers of arrest and allow indefinite detentions without charges. They also sharply curtail rights to demonstrate and organize politically.

In another move to lighten restrictions, the council reduced the nightly curfew to three hours, from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

In a landmark move, the council issued a decree easing conditions for forming new political parties. Under the new decree, new parties must have 5,000 members in 10 provinces with 300 members in each of them in order to gain recognition. Egypt has 29 provinces.

The council, however, banned the formation of political parties on religious grounds and those discriminating against citizens based on their race or faith.