CAIRO â€"  Egypt's prosecutor general has defied a presidential decision to remove him from his post, entering his office in a downtown Cairo courthouse flanked by security and hundreds of judges and attorneys.

President Mohammed Morsi ordered Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud to step down to appease public anger over the acquittals of ex-regime officials accused of orchestrating violence against protesters last year.

But Mahmoud and a powerful judges' club say this infringes on the judiciary's independence.

The conflict over the prosecutor general is the latest challenge facing Morsi, who is seeking to assert his authority after being elected president this summer in the wake of the popular uprising that ousted his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

After briefly returning to work Saturday, Mahmoud headed to the presidency for a meeting to defuse the tension.