Egyptian security forces are preparing to besiege supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi who are gathered in Cairo protest camps.

Security sources told Al Jazeera that police would launch action against the protesters early on Monday.

Al Jazeera's Simon McGregor-Wood, reporting on Sunday from the pro-Morsi Cairo suburb of Nasr City, said that the police action would not be a full-scale assault.

"It will simply be a very comprehensive encirclement of this encampment to try to put the squeeze on," he said.

"They will let people out, but they won't necessary let them or vital supplies back in."

A senior security source told Reuters news agency earlier that the decision to take action came after a meeting between the interior minister and his aides.

"State security troops will be deployed around the sit-ins by dawn as a start of procedures that will eventually lead to a dispersal," another source told Reuters.

Officials told the AP news agency that they were preparing for possible clashes.

The pro-Morsi camps are the main flashpoints in the confrontation between the army, which toppled Morsi, and the ousted president's supporters who demand his reinstatement.

Thousands rallied on Sunday to demand Morsi's reinstatement, amid last-ditch efforts for reconciliation ahead of the threatened crackdown.

A large convoy of cars carrying pictures of the deposed president beeped their horns as they drove through a neighbourhood in east Cairo.

Hundreds of women marched in central Cairo against army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, shouting: "Sisi is a traitor, Sisi is a killer."

Morsi loyalists have said that nothing short of the deposed president's reinstatement would persuade them to disperse, despite several warnings by the interim leaders that the camps would be dismantled after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

In a sign of the mounting tensions, a brief overnight power cut at the main sit-in outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque struck panic among the pro-Morsi demonstrators, with some taking to social media to announce that an assault had begun.

The main coalition of Morsi supporters, the Anti-Coup Alliance, said 10 marches would be held in various parts of the capital on Sunday "to defend the electoral legitimacy" of Egypt's first freely elected president.

PHOTO CAPTION

Supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi attend the Eid al-Fitr dawn prayers, marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan that is traditionally celebrated with special cookies, presents and new clothes outside Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque, where protesters have installed a camp and hold daily rallies at Nasr City in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2013

Al-Jazeera