Kyrgyz leader says coup attempt foiled

Kyrgyz forces arrested an opposition party leader on suspicion of plotting the overthrow of the government on Thursday, after troops fired blank rounds into a crowd trying to join mass demonstrations near parliament.

Acting President Roza Otunbayeva said security forces seized firearms and grenades from Urmat Baryktabasov and 26 supporters after a day of protests in the capital of the Central Asian state, which plans to hold parliamentary elections in October.

"All who attempt to destroy the peace of the citizens will be punished," said Otunbayeva.

Her interim government has struggled to impose its authority since an uprising in April toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Savage ethnic fighting followed in June, killing more than 350 people over several days and burning thousands from their homes.

Renewed violence, particularly in the north of Kyrgyzstan - which hosts US and Russian military air bases and escaped the bloodshed that engulfed southern regions in June - could disrupt the interim government's plan for elections.

Baryktabasov, who staged a failed coup attempt in 2005, recently returned from exile.

Early on Thursday, Kyrgyz troops stopped busloads of his supporters as they approached the capital from his home town on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul.

After a stand-off lasting several hours on a main road into Bishkek, troops fired tear gas and blank rounds to disperse the crowd. Local news agencies said two women were injured by rubber bullets.

Keneshbek Dushebayev, head of the Kyrgyz National Security Service, told Reuters the army was acting on information that some of those arriving by bus were armed and might attempt to overthrow the interim government.

"If their demands are not met, they are intent on seizing power," he said during the stand-off in the village of Kirshyolk, as helicopters roared overhead.

A Reuters photographer at the scene said Baryktabasov had appeared among the crowd of his supporters at the roadblock.

Dushebayev, speaking later at a news conference with Otunbayeva, said relatives of Bakiyev - the president ousted in April - had helped to plan the coup attempt.

His claims could not immediately be verified. From exile in Belarus, Bakiyev has repeatedly denied any involvement in the June violence.

Some diplomats say Otunbayeva, a former ambassador to Britain and the United States, faces a struggle to build Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy in impoverished Kyrgyzstan, where the economy is expected to shrink by five per cent this year.

While troops blocked the crowd outside Bishkek, up to 3,000 other demonstrators massed near parliament to demand a role in government for Baryktabasov.

Demonstrators held banners saying: 'Hands Off Baryktabasov!' Some demanded he be allowed to speak on the makeshift stage erected outside the parliament building.

Baryktabasov has not publicly stated his policies. He leads a political party called "Meken Tuu", or Flag of My Homeland.

"We live in poverty. In the south, there are also many who are against those in power," said Avazbek Abakirov, a man in his mid-forties in the crowd outside the parliament building. "The population wants to unite around Baryktabasov."

But Farid Niyazov, spokesman for the interim government, said Baryktabasov was ineligible to participate in the elections because he was a citizen of neighbouring Kazakhstan.

The crowd outside parliament later dispersed peacefully.