Tens of thousands rally to renew calls for Saakashvili's resignation

AFP - Thousands of protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Saturday as opposition leaders pressed for a meeting with President Mikheil Saakashvili after a month of demonstrations demanding his ouster.

In a show of strength on the one-month anniversary of the start of protests, about 20,000 opposition supporters gathered outside parliament in central Tbilisi, calling for the president to resign by chanting "Misha Go!"

The protest came after the government and opposition leaders on Friday failed to make any progress in resolving the political stand-off during their first talks since protests began.

"The whole nation is standing here after 30 days so that the self-proclaimed president recognises that there is a crisis in this country, that there is a very serious crisis," opposition leader Salome Zurabishvili told the crowd.

Clashes this week between police and protesters and a brief bloodless military mutiny raised fears of instability in Georgia, a former Soviet republic which is currently hosting controversial NATO military exercises that have infuriated neighbouring Russia.

Opposition leaders called for an urgent meeting with Saakashvili, whom they accuse of mishandling last year's war with Russia and of becoming increasingly autocratic since coming to power in the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.

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