Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has signed a new constitution that will reduce his powers, a climbdown that defused a political crisis which had brought thousands of opposition protesters onto the streets.
Mr Bakiyev signed the constitution in front of reporters ending a tense week of pressure by the opposition that had staged mass protests threatening the Central Asian state's fragile stability.
The opposition had said Mr Bakiyev, who came to power in July last year, should quit if he did not agree to the new constitution.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev
The deal removes the president's right to dissolve parliament and appoint the prime minister, who will instead be nominated by the party winning most votes in elections.
Despite the curtailing of his powers, Mr Bakiyev said the deal was a victory for stability. "There are no losers here," he said after signing the document, hammered out by the opposition and his supporters and voted by parliament yesterday.
Hailing it as a step towards entrenching democracy in his country, he said: "The new constitution is the result of the level-headedness and wisdom of the Kyrgyz people."
The protests broke out after the opposition accused Mr Bakiyev of reneging on promises to introduce democratic reforms when he was elected in the wake of violent protests that forced his long-serving predecessor to flee the country.
The United States and Russia both have military airbases in Kyrgyzstan. Though it has few energy resources of its own, Kyrgyzstan lies in a region rich in oil, gas and uranium where Beijing, Moscow and Washington are all jostling for influence.
In a region where autocratic rulers are the order of the day, the new constitution will make Kyrgyzstan Central Asia's only ex-Soviet republic to have such strong checks and balances on the powers of the president.