Crisis meeting fails to yield result in Georgia

Agence France Presse

Opposition leaders said the talks with Saakashvili had failed to make any progress, more than a month into demonstrations that have disrupted life in the capital, however, Saakashvili said he had agreed with the opposition to continue talks.

"Saakashvili thinks that everything is very well (in the country) and we think that everything is very bad.... There was no other result of this meeting," opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze, a former presidential candidate, told journalists after the talks.

He said protests would continue and that the opposition would announce further plans later Monday. Another opposition leader, former U.N. envoy Irakli Alasania, said deep differences remained despite the talks. "The differences are still there, we have different views on how the crisis can be resolved," he said.

But Alasania, considered a moderate, also said the talks were an important first step in bringing the country out of political crisis. "It is very important that this meeting took place.... It was very important to discuss this in person with the president," he said.

The protests, which began on April 9, have been the biggest demonstrations against Saakashvili's rule since a war last August with Russia over the breakaway South Ossetia region. Opposition leaders offered talks with the government last week after riot police clashed with protesters in the first serious outbreak of violence since the protests began. Police said nobody was seriously injured. The clashes and a brief military mutiny last week have raised fears of wider unrest in Georgia.