Clashes as Georgian crisis worsens

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, building barricades, breaking windows and setting off fireworks outside parliament, in protest against the government which called off talks to join the EU.

Riot police responded by firing water cannon and tear gas into the crowds.

The protest was by far the biggest since the increasingly anti-Western ruling party Georgian Dream was re-elected last month in a vote the pro-EU opposition says was rigged.

At one point a fire broke out in parliament. Protesters burned an effigy of the richest man, the ruling party's founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, on the steps of parliament.

Other protests were reportedly in towns and cities throughout the country.

Prime Minister and ex-party chief Irakli Kobakhidze said yesterday that President Salome Zourabichvili would have to leave office at the end of her term this month.

Zourabichvili has said she would stay in office because the new parliament was illegitimate and had no authority to name her successor.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE