Mass protest action took place in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek with thousands of opposition activists calling on President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to resign, the Reuters news agency reports.

The demonstration is the latest challenge to Bakiyev’s turbulent year-and-a-half rule of the impoverished Central Asian state which houses both a Russian and a US military airbase, the latter used for operations in nearby Afghanistan.

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Up to 6,000 protesters, many wearing blue bandanas of the opposition United Front for a Decent Future for Kyrgyzstan or waving red Kyrgyz flags, chanted “Bakiyev out”.

“We gathered here today not to seize power by any means but to clean up the authorities,” opposition leader Felix Kulov, who until December served as Bakiyev’s prime minister, told the crowd.

On the eve of the protest Bakiyev accused those organising the demonstration of planning a coup.

Prime Minister Almaz Atambayev, an opposition politician invited by Bakiyev to head the government last week, appeared on stage, asking the crowd to trust the government.

“Do not believe the words you are hearing here,” he said to loud boos and jeers, with some shouting back “you are wrong”.

Bakiyev’s critics say he has condoned corruption, allowed crime to spiral and has sabotaged constitutional reforms which were meant to weaken the powers his office enjoys.

On Tuesday Atambayev announced a new concession: a revision of the constitution that he said awarded parliament more power.

One opposition member of parliament said it in fact favoured the president. Parliament is to debate the proposal on Monday.

Ruslan Imankhajiyev, a protest leader, said the opposition planned to house up to 5,000 activists on the square next to the White House, as the seat of government is known, until their demands are met.

“We want constitutional and democratic reform,” he said as busloads of riot police assembled on the other side of the square. “Bakiyev’s proposals are useless. We don’t trust him.”

The crowd, watching a large television monitor showing close-ups of the opposition leaders speaking on stage, appeared calm and orderly.

“I came here because Bakiyev keeps deceiving people,” protester Berdykhozha Basteriyev said.

But one passer-by, an elderly man who gave his name as Pyotr Andreyevich said he had little sympathy for the protesters.

“All these people are ne’er-do-wells,” he said. “They themselves voted for Bakiyev a year-and-a-half ago and all of a sudden they don’t want him anymore.”

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