OSH (Kyrghyzstan}, March 21: Opposition protesters, using sticks and petrol bombs, seized Kyrgyzstan’s second city on Monday as increasingly violent unrest swept the south of the country aimed at forcing President Askar Akayev to step down. Central Asian Kyrghyzstan has become the latest ex-Soviet republic — after Ukraine and Georgia — to be rocked by anti-government protests in the wake of elections judged as flawed by international observers.

A spokesman for Akayev, who has made no public appearance for several days, said the president was ready to hold talks with the opposition. “The most important thing right now is to let people calm down, assess what has happened and then start negotiations with them about their demands,” Abdil Segizbayev told Kyrghyz television.

Akayev also ordered a review of parliamentary election results in those regions where the polls in February and March have been disputed by the opposition.

Police and officials in Osh fled when a crowd of about 1,000 young men armed with sticks and petrol bombs stormed the regional administrative building and police headquarters, setting fire to a portrait of Akayev.

Opposition activists took control of the nearby town of Jalal Abad overnight after violent clashes with police. Police sources said four officers were beaten to death.

The opposition had now left itself no option but to press on with protests even its own leaders say are spinning out of control, said a Western diplomat.

The north, including the capital, Bishkek, has remained calm. But Akayev has warned any attempt to copy Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” could drag the mostly Muslim country of nearly five million into civil war.

The south has a large ethnic Uzbek population where many resent what they see as the north’s political dominance and greater prosperity.

Akayev cancelled a public address in Bishkek to mark a local holiday. He has not said when, and in what format, the talks would take place.

The opposition called for nationwide protests after it was routed in parliamentary elections held over two rounds in February and March.

Unlike revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, when Russia backed the unpopular incumbents, former imperial power Moscow has stood back from the unrest in Kyrghyzstan. Both Russia and the United States have air force bases near the capital, Bishkek. In the centre of Osh, crowds of young men chanting “Akayev out!” were tearing up looted books written by the president. There were no police or officials to be seen in the town.

Another crowd armed with sticks and police riot shields took over the airport, where they were threatening violence against a nervous-looking unit of troops who had changed into civilian clothes and were trying to leave.

Akayev, a trained physicist, is seen as the most liberal of the presidents in the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia. He has said he would step down later this year when his third term expires. The opposition says it suspects he will use his dominance of parliament to change the law and stay on.—Reuters