CAIRO (Reuters) - Around 2,000 protesters defied an army demand to quit Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday, vowing to stay until Egypt's ruling military council heeds their demand for civilian rule and a deeper purge of corrupt officials.

The mostly young demonstrators, some of them unemployed, have blocked roads to Tahrir using coils of barbed wire since Friday, when hundreds of thousands massed for one of the biggest protests since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

State media said prosecutors had frozen assets of 200 people since Mubarak was forced from office in February.

Former oil minister Sameh Fahmy and his wife had their bank accounts and assets frozen, official news agency MENA reported on Monday.

But the protesters want more and swifter action and have promised to occupy Tahrir Square until a new round of protests on Friday, irritating some Cairo residents who showed little sympathy for their cause.