Updated

CAIRO-- Thousands of Egyptians are rallying in Cairo to press the country's military rulers to take faster steps toward democracy and to prosecute those behind the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Activists are calling the protests in Tahrir Square the "Friday of Last Warning," but the gathering is drawing smaller crowds than those in previous weeks.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's best organized political group, did not attend. Summer heat and worries that too much protesting will lead to disorder might have kept others away.

A small group of hardcore activists has been camped out in the square for a week and traffic has been cut off through the central artery of downtown for days.