President Eduard Shevardnadze declared a state of emergency in Georgia today after opposition activists seized control of parliament.
"This is an attempt at a coup d'etat and an attempt to overthrow the president," he told reporters. "I cannot do it any other way now. I'm declaring a state of emergency. This is a special order and the Defence Ministry as well as the Interior Ministry will be involved in it. And we will restore order."
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Georgian riot police clash with protesters at the presidential officein central Tbilisi
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He was speaking hours after opposition supporters broke downthe door of Georgia's parliament building andentered the chamber where he was preparing togive a speech. Television pictures showed chaotic scenes inside theparliament as scores of opposition supporters surged into thechamber, waving red and white flags and taking to the podiumwith microphones.
Mr Shevardnadze was quickly hustled away by his bodyguards."This is a parliament. We are not in the street. Let allGeorgia see what is happening," he said before he wasrushed away. Fistfights broke out between his supporters andopposition.
At least 25,000 protestors led by leader Mr Mikhail Saakashvili marched up to the gates leading to Mr Shevardnadze's offices this morning and called for the veteran leader to quit.
"The velvet revolution has taken place in Georgia," Mr Saakashvili said in the parliament after it was stormed. "We are against violence."
He ordered the pro-government members of parliament to leave thehall, and handed over the speaker's podium to opposition leader, Ms NinoBurdzhanadze, who later said she was taking on the functions of the president from Mr Shevardnadze.
"I, as chairman of the Georgian parliament, in accordancewith the constitution, will take on the functions of thepresident until such time as it becomes clear whether he has theability to continue," she told reporters.
Mr Saakashvili said MrShevardnadze could stay in office for now on condition it wasonly to usher in an early presidential election."We won't accept anything short of (early presidentialelections). If he announces for himself some transitional periodfor new presidential elections, that's fine."
Four armoured personnel carriers, more than ten buses and mini-buses with soldiers have taken up positions outside the Interior Ministry. More soldiers were surrounding the building, about twokilometres from parliament. Tens of thousands of oppositionsupporters are still outside the parliament building.
Mr Shevardnadze said earlier he wanted to pursue talks with opposition leaders, who have led protests since November 2nd, when they accused the authorities of stealing a parliamentary poll. But the opposition said they would not back down.
Mr Shevardnadze (75), has been uncompromising in his stance, refusing to be pushed from office by the demonstrators.
But Georgia's communist party boss and leader for nearly all the post-Soviet period faces one of his biggest tests after protests over poll fraud widened into demands for his departure over poverty, corruption and misrule. His inner circle of advisers also looks increasingly split over how to deal with the crisis.
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A Georgian protester, holding a portrait of oppositionleader Mr Mikhail Saakashvili, during a rally in central Tbilisi this morningPhotograph: Reuters
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Both pro and anti-Shevardnadze forces had vowed to avoid bloodshed but alsorefused to budge from their increasingly intractable positions. Both sidesamassed thousands of supporters in the already tense capital. Police, covered inbody armour and holding shields, have been posted in front of all the maingovernment buildings.
Pro-Shevardnadze forces are camped out in front of the parliament, along withheavily armed police but the police gave little resistance as the oppositionadvanced.
Calls for Mr Shevardnadze's resignation reflect growing popular resentment at thewidespread unemployment, poverty and chaos, 12 years after the Soviet Unioncollapsed.
Russia's Foreign Minister, Mr IgorIvanov, is to travel to Georgia, the Kremlin said today,after President Vladimir Putin consulted other leaders ofex-Soviet states on the situation there.
Western powers and Moscow are urging calm in the impoverished Caucasus state of five million. Any trouble could threaten a planned oil pipeline through Georgia from neighbouring Azerbaijan to Turkey.
Washington has called for an independent investigation into what it said was massive fraud at the elections and pressed both sides to resolve the dispute peacefully.