PRESIDENT Slobodan Milosevic plunged deeper into crisis yesterday as western nations, including the EU and the US, condemned a fierce police attack on pro democracy demonstrators and an opposition leader appealed for army intervention.
A day after truncheon wielding riot police set upon a crowd of unarmed protesters, injuring 80, more violence erupted but on a lesser scale.
Police beat passers by and pockets of demonstrators walking along a pedestrian shopping street after taking part in an estimated 50,000 strong rally in nearby Republic Square.
A couple of dozen younger demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at the police, who then charged. A hospital doctor said seven people had been slightly injured. Around 1,000 police with clubs, shields and tear gas had prevented the crowd from marching along the main boulevard.
Some 30,000 students marched earlier in the day across the bridge that was the scene of Sunday's violence but there were no police.
As European countries and the Serbian Orthodox Church denounced the new crackdown the opposition leader, Mr Vuk Draskovic, accused Mr Milosevic of running a regime of terror and said the Yugoslav army should step in to help the protest movement.
This was the first time he appealed publicly for direct intervention from a force already said to be disgruntled over pay.
The Dutch Presidency of the EU signalled that it will make a strong protest to the Serbian government. And the United States condemned what it called "the most serious use of force" against demonstrators and urged President Milosevic to exercise restraint. The US Assistant Secretary of State, Mr John Kornblum, said that Washington had delivered a protest to Serbia.
France, Germany and Britain condemned Sunday's violence and urged Mr Milosevic to avoid a repeat. France said it would invite the three opposition leaders to Paris for talks, in what it said was recognition of their legitimacy.
Mrs Vesna Pesic, the leader of the liberal Civic Alliance party, was bruised on the arms and legs by police truncheons. Nursing a bandaged arm yesterday, she blamed the violence on President Milosevic and his hard line Marxist wife, Ms Mirjana Markovic.
"She has violent fantasies, and from the time to time he says yes to them," Mrs Pesic said.
She thought the sudden show of police force suggested the ruling couple were preparing to invoke emergency powers in Belgrade to prevent the Zajedno (Together) opposition coalition from taking over the city council it won in local elections last November.
"That is the logic of what is happening here," she said. "The only thing they have left is violence."
The mandate of the outgoing Socialist city council ends today but the regime has not recognised the legitimacy of its newly elected Zajedno replacement.
The Serbian journalists' association demanded the resignation of republic's Interior Minister over attacks on reporters.
An international film festival in Belgrade has been halted because of the police attacks, the Beta news agency said.