Riot police broke up an opposition rally in the Kyrgyz capital Wednesday, signaling the government's determination to keep protests that have left much of the south under opposition control from spreading north.

The show of force came hours after President Askar Akayev fired the interior minister and chief prosecutor over the unrest in the southern Kyrgyzstan, where opposition protesters have seized control of several key government buildings and kept up pressure on the president to resign over alleged vote fraud.

Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev was planning to visit the southern city of Osh "to look for someone constructive to talk to," Akayev spokesman Abdil Seghizbayev said, but he stressed there would be no talks with "criminal groups that are controlling the situation there." The opposition has been rejecting talks if they do not include Akayev.

A government official said on condition of anonymity that Tanayev would be in Osh today.

In Bishkek, some 200 riot police encircled groups of protesters calling for Akayev's ouster, scuffling with those who resisted and locking elbows to force roughly 100 demonstrators out of the central square. Police appeared to detain about 20 to 30 people, dragging some away.

Among those taken into custody were Bolotbek Maripov, who ran unsuccessfully against Akayev's daughter in the disputed February parliamentary elections that have plunged the Central Asian nation into crisis, and Edil Baisalov, head of a prominent non-governmental organization that monitored the voting.

(China Daily March 24, 2005)