Enlarge imageBy Magarita Antidze
TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze says he is willing to talk with opposition protesters calling for his resignation but only if they leave the parliament building they stormed the day before.
"It is a necessary demand. It is, if you wish, an ultimatum. I must demand they leave the buildings which have been seized by force immediately. And then we will meet and talk," he told reporters on Sunday.
"Until later tonight or tomorrow, the state of emergency does not come into effect."
Earlier his defence minister said the veteran leader had not given any orders to use force to block the opposition’s "velvet revolution", but the army was ready to stop the political crisis from escalating.
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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who flew into Tbilisi before dawn, met the opposition and Shevardnadze to try to broker a solution. One opposition leader said talks on a "reasonable compromise" were possible.
On Saturday, tens of thousands took to the streets to demand Shevardnadze step down. As with the "people power" protests that swept eastern Europe in 1989, the military stood aside, even when protesters stormed parliament.
Shevardnadze was forced to flee the legislature and has been holed up in his private residence on the outskirts of the capital ever since.
"Shevardnadze’s regime is bankrupt. His time has been exhausted," said Mikhail Saakashvili, a 35-year-old U.S. educated lawyer groomed by Shevardnadze and now the opposition’s driving force.
"We should pursue the question of President Shevardnadze’s resignation until the end. The fight has yet to be won. It is too soon to celebrate," he told thousands of supporters still massed outside parliament.
Fellow opposition leader Nino Burdzhanadze, who says she is taking on the functions of the president, said compromise talks were possible. But she insisted there must be new elections.
It was opposition charges Shevardnadze rigged the November 2 parliamentary election which set off the protests that threaten to end 11 years of his increasingly unpopular rule.
The 75-year-old leader, who has survived at least two assassination attempts and is widely blamed for the country’s grinding poverty, declared a state of emergency.
He looked exhausted and nervous when he faced the cameras on Sunday to meet Ivanov.
In a very rare display of affection for any senior Russian official in the former Soviet republic, Ivanov -- who was born in Georgia -- was given rapturous applause as he addressed opposition supporters.
INNER CIRCLE DIVIDED
Shevardnadze’s own inner circle has begun to look divided over how to react.
One adviser, Levan Aleksidze, who resigned on Saturday, told local television: "The president is a president only in name. There is an acting president and that is Mrs Burdzhanadze."
He told Reuters troops were already moving over to the opposition’s side.
Defence Minister David Tevzadze, speaking for the first time since the storming of parliament, implied that the army was still under Shevardnadze’s control.
"The army has not received orders from the commander general to use force," he told reporters at his headquarters. "The army is paying a lot of attention to the events and is ready to stop the escalation of chaos and to fulfil its responsibility."
Shevardnadze had earlier said that if parliament did not back his state of emergency decree, as the constitution requires, the army would take control of the Black Sea state.
Western leaders have urged all parties to exercise restraint in the impoverished Caucasus state of five million. Trouble could threaten a planned oil pipeline through Georgia from neighbouring Azerbaijan to Turkey.
In a sign that the tension was still far from over, Saakashvili called on supporters to march to the Interior Ministry to prevent Shevardnadze convening parliament there.
Reuters reporters saw three armoured personnel carriers and a tank stationed outside the ministry earlier in the day. Hundreds of soldiers have also been bussed in.
"Of course we are ready for a reasonable compromise and for talks," Burdzhanadze, the outgoing parliament speaker, told local television. "But a reasonable compromise means that those people who stand outside parliament should not be cheated."
"Without new elections there is no realistic way to resolve this crisis."
