San Francisco - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - San Diego - Reno - Lake Tahoe - Salt Lake city - Washington Seattle
 
Georgia protesters move to oust president
TBILISI: Georgian opposition leaders said on Monday they would move daily street protests to President Mikheil Saakashvili's office as they fought to maintain momentum in a campaign to force his resignation.

Some 20,000 people demonstrated on Monday outside parliament in the former Soviet republic, the fifth day of their protest.

The opposition leaders said they would keep up continuous protests until Saakashvili quit over his record on democracy and last year's disastrous war with Russia.

"That way he will hear our voices much more loudly," said Kakha Kukava, one of more than a dozen opposition leaders taking part in the campaign.

Turnout dipped over the weekend and there were signs that some opposition leaders were looking to hold talks with the president on finding a way out of the stand-off.

Some 60,000 people rallied at the start of the campaign on Thursday, followed by 20,000 on Friday, blocking Tbilisi's central avenue and the main roads running past the president's office and the public broadcaster.

Critics accuse Saakashvili, who came to power on the back of the 2003 Rose Revolution, of monopolising power and exerting pressure on the judiciary and the media.

Last year's war, when Russia crushed a Georgian assault on breakaway South Ossetia, has emboldened opponents who say the 41-year-old leader has made too many mistakes to remain in power until 2013.

But analysts doubt the opposition can remain united or muster the numbers over a sustained period to force him out. Despite the defection of some senior allies and repeated cabinet reshuffles since the war, Saakashvili's position appears to remain strong.