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The Georgian Health Ministry said that around 360 people have so far been injured in the clashes, and 109 remain in hospital.

After hundreds of riot police with shields and batons broke up a rally outside parliament, opposition supporters staged a new protest on the city’s Rike Square. Harsh methods were again used to dispel the crowd, including rubber bullets and tear gas.

Opposition arrests and police beatings have angered the crowds, now gathering for a sixth day in central Tbilisi.

The Georgian Health Ministry said that around 360 people have so far been injured in the clashes, and 109 remain in hospital. Health Minister David Tkeshelashvili said the state would pay for the medical treatment of those injured.

Georgian Interior Ministry troops and army units have been deployed on the streets to prevent the protesters from breaking through to the parliament’s building. All 23 metro stations in the capital have been closed.

Aside from President Saakashvili’s resignation, the Georgian opposition is demanding early elections in April 2008, electoral reform, and the freeing of “political prisoners”. Saakashvili has so far refused to negotiate with the protesters.

At the peak of the protests, between 50,000 and 100,000 people, according to different estimates, rallied on Friday, the first day of Georgia’s worst unrest since the 2003 “rose revolution” that brought Saakashvili to power.

Protesters accuse the president of corruption, authoritarianism, and failed economic reforms. Many continue to support former defense minister Irakly Okruashvili, previously a key ally of the president, who in late September publicly accused Saakashvili of ordering the murders of political opponents and of plotting the forceful seizure of breakaway South Ossetia. Days after the comments he was arrested and charged with blackmail, money laundering, and abuse of office, but was later released.

Imedi TV channel reported that Giorgy Khaindrava, a Georgian opposition leader detained earlier today, had launched a hunger strike. Khaindrava announced the measure after being taken to a Tbilisi court to face charges of inciting public disorder and resisting police. He was later released by the court after paying a fine of around $250.

National media also reported that authorities are searching the office of businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who earlier pledged to finance political opposition in the country and said he was ready to spend his entire fortune to overthrow “Saakashvili’s Nazi regime”.

Georgian lawmaker Levan Gachechiladze, who had been taking part in a hunger strike outside parliament, said he had been attacked by police, but warned that “the people will soon beat Saakashvili in the same manner”.

The opposition People’s Party said that their leader, Koba Davitashvili, was abducted by unknown individuals and forced into a car at a market where he had arrived to buy a sound amplification system for the anti-president rally.

Imedi TV said protests have now spilled over into other Georgian cities. The largest provincial rally is taking place in Batumi on the Black Sea coast.

The head of Georgia’s Orthodox Church voiced his concern over the unrest, and pledged the church’s support in resolving the standoff.

“The situation in Georgia is slipping out of control,” Patriarch Ilia II said. “I think there is only one route – and that is dialogue between the leadership and the opposition. If there is willingness from both sides, we are ready to take part in this dialogue.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the ongoing unrest is an internal affair for Georgia but stressed that Russia is concerned by the events. “What is happening in Georgia is its internal affair, and I would not like to comment in detail on the situation. But it is of concern to us,” he said.

The minister said that in addition to the crisis in Tbilisi, Georgia’s leadership is attempting to scupper talks on regulating the country’s conflicts with its breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The European Union and NATO said they were closely watching the situation in Georgia and urged the country’s authorities and opposition to refrain from confrontation.

MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) – American interference is aggravating relations between Georgia and its two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on Wednesday.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is pushing his country for NATO membership, enjoyed until recently Western backing in his ongoing disputes with Russia, in particular over two breakaway regions that have strong ties with Moscow.

“Events in Georgia are occurring with the interference of the United States,” Gen. Yury Baluyevsky said. “Who finances Georgia’s $820 million military budget? Who is creating this force, which tomorrow might be used against its own people? I am not ruling this out.”

Baluyevsky also said that an incident involving Russian peacekeepers in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia in late October was incited by Tbilisi.

“This was a provocation, and President Saakashvili is one of the initiators of that provocation, which threatened Russian peacekeepers,” Baluyevsky said.

The Russian peacekeepers detained five Georgian officers in the village of Ganmukhuri in late October, saying the Georgians had threatened to open fire on them. Georgia said Russian peacekeepers attacked the police officers and beat them up. The officers were released after the Georgian president arrived in the area to intervene.

Georgia has repeatedly voiced its goal of regaining control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which declared independence in the early 1990s. It has also accused the CIS peacekeeping force, mainly represented by Russians, of backing separatists.

TBILISI, Georgia – Riot police used tear gas and water cannons to break up demonstrations against Georgia’s pro-Western government Wednesday before bursting into the offices of a pro-opposition television station that went off the air moments later.

Six days of demonstrations in Tbilisi have fueled the worst crisis that U.S.-allied President Mikhail Saakashvili has faced since he was propelled to power in the 2003 Rose Revolution mass protests.

Saakashvili said in a televised address that Russian spy agencies were behind the protests and that several Russian diplomats had been asked to leave because of espionage activities.

There was no immediate response from Moscow, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed similar previous allegations by Saakashvili as “farce.”

The Imedi television station describes itself as independent but is seen as a key opposition mouthpiece by authorities. It has carried statements by opposition leaders and broadcast footage of police breaking up protests Wednesday. More than 100 people were hospitalized after police drove opposition demonstrators from two protests in the capital, Tbilisi. Police used truncheons on some protesters and rubber bullets at one demonstration.

“Riot police are here, something horrible is going on,” the Imedi announcer said before the station went off the air.

The Interior Ministry said it would put out a statement on the situation at Imedi later in the day.

“Journalists aren’t in danger, they will be allowed to go home,” ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told The Associated Press.

Salome Zurabishvili, a former foreign minister who is now an opposition leader, said she was inside Imedi’s headquarters when more than 100 police broke into the building and took control.

Zurabishvili said that the shutdown of Imedi means that Georgia no longer has independent television because Rustavi 2 television, which is technically independent, has toed the official line.

Imedi was founded by Badri Patarkatsishvili, a prominent businessman who authorities claim is behind the protests against President Mikhail Saakashvili. Patarkatsishvili earned his fortune in Russia during the turbulent 1990s, but he returned to his native Georgia in 2000.

Patarkatsishvili recently handed over his controlling stake in Imedi to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., saying he wants to focus on supporting opposition parties.

The main demonstration Wednesday was in a street outside Parliament, where Saakashvili opponents have gathered since Friday, first to demand changes in election schedules and legislation and then to demand his resignation.

As police advanced, protesters retreated down Tbilisi’s main avenue. Police fired tear gas from the beds of pickup trucks. Many wore gas masks, and live television broadcasts showed several people choking, including police. Scattered fist fights broke out between uniformed police and protesters.

Later, riot police again used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to break up another demonstration in downtown Tbilisi. Some police used truncheons to beat protesters who clambered over the city’s walls, threw stones and taunted police.

About 360 people sought medical assistance, and more than 100 of them have remained hospitalized, Health Ministry spokeswoman Nino Kochorashvili told The Associated Press.