Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has sacked his cabinet and suggested significant reforms in his first public intervention in a 10-day-old nationwide uprising.

The authoritarian leader, whose silence so far has provoked anger among his people, is expected to deliver the most important speech of his career on Wednesday as he tries to win the trust of a rebellious Syrian people insisting on widespread reform and democratic freedoms. Assad is likely to lift emergency laws, which outlaw public gatherings, and introduce a corruption crackdown in a bid to stay ahead of the revolutionary current sweeping the Middle East.

Protests of the scale seen over the past week are unprecedented in Syria, where one of the region's most formidable police states has crushed dissent, but largely delivered stability for more than four decades. Large pro-government demonstrations were held in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, a week after running street battles between demonstrators and security forces who opened fire on them in the southern city of Deraa and the northern port of Latakia.

They came as Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, as president in 2000 and has ruled with the same unchecked power, was clearly calculating how to deliver concessions that would appease citizens without being seen to capitulate to them.

"What we have in Syria is not yet a revolution. It is unrest in pursuit of legitimate reform," a Syrian official said. "Assad is a popular president. If there was a vote tomorrow, I think he would win 60% or maybe more.

"We have the problem of economic corruption but not political corruption. Assad has a lot of credit in the bank. He needs to cash it in or else we are heading for the unknown. Whatever happens, Syria has changed. The wall of fear for expressing your views has collapsed."

Syria's protesters have been galvanised by the region's uprisings and Assad faces a difficult task of convincing the country's largely impoverished citizens that his old guard can offer the same political buy-in that was triumphantly seized by demonstrators in Tunisia and Egypt.

"This is what this is all about for us," said a Syrian businessman in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. "We want the same opportunity that everyone else is getting. We will not be taken for granted any more."

Another Syrian, who also refused to be named, outlined the fear felt by many in Damascus as the tide of full-blown revolt draws near. "There are a lot of people invested in the status quo," he said. "And there are good reasons for that. Stability has been paramount in Syria and it is a formula that has delivered safety for many and success for some."

Syria's ruling class almost exclusively stems from an Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shia Islam. Its citizens are majority Sunni Muslims, along with Christian and Druze minorities.

Syria has long been prominent in the geopolitics of the region, but has taken on increasing importance over the past three years as the United States has tried to disengage it from Iran, which acts as a main patron. Israel has also tried to lever Syria free from Iran and from the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah.

While the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has condemned the use of violence by security forces, US politicians have been restrained in their criticism, describing Assad as a reformer and insisting that the western military intervention to protect civilians in Libya will not be repeated in Syria.

The US recently sent an ambassador to Damascus after an absence of more than five years, during which the Bush White House had accused Assad of allowing his border with Iraq to be used as a turnstile for insurgents fighting US troops.

However, suspicions have remained about Syria's role in the region and its motivations, with near neighbours Iraq and Lebanon convinced that its rulers are continuing to play a pervasive role in their countries.

"That is why we are looking at what is happening to Assad with such utter fascination," said one Lebanese member of parliament. "The circle has turned for him and he is learning that he can no longer get by with the thuggish ways of the past."

As has been the case in Libya and Bahrain, Syria's rulers have blamed the uprising on outside forces. Buthaina Shaaban, a top adviser to Assad, said that "armed gangs" had been responsible for the chaos. Anti-foreigner sentiment is running high and numerous reporters have been deported.

The government has mounted an intensive propaganda campaign, sending demonstrators to the streets of the capital. On Saturday hundreds of families drove through the city waving flags and chanting "God, Syria and Bashar only".