Georgian opposition clash with police in Tbilisi

By Matt Robinson and Margarita Antidze

TBILISI (Reuters) - Police and protesters clashed in Georgia on Wednesday during a month-long opposition campaign to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili, stoking fears of unrest after a failed military mutiny.

Police accused protesters of trying to storm their base, and television pictures showed police and demonstrators trading blows with batons and sticks across a metal gate dividing them.

Police denied opposition accusations they fired rubber bullets as several hundred people converged on the base. Police said 22 protesters and six policemen were wounded. The opposition said several of its leaders were treated in hospital.

"This president has dug his own grave," opposition leader and former Saakashvili ally Nino Burjanadze told supporters rallying outside parliament after the violence. "We'll be standing and fighting till the very end."

Georgia said it put down a brief, bloodless mutiny at a tank base on Tuesday and accused neighbouring Russia of plotting a wider rebellion against Saakashvili nine months after a war between the former Soviet neighbours.

NATO began military exercises in Georgia on Wednesday which Russia had condemned as "muscle-flexing" on its southern border.

Georgia has been braced for unrest since the opposition began daily protests on April 9. The protesters have blocked streets in downtown Tbilisi and demanded Saakashvili quit over his record on democracy and last year's war, when Russia crushed a Georgian assault on breakaway South Ossetia.

Several hundred people had surrounded the police base demanding the release of three opposition activists being held over the beating of a journalist on Tuesday. Masked riot police took position in the grounds.