OVER 200,000 people gathered yesterday in the biggest demonstration yet in Belgrade, amid a warning to President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia that any crackdown could trigger international retaliation.
Tens of thousands more also protested in other places across the country in the 16th day of demonstrations against the authorities refusal to accept local election results in which the opposition claimed victory in 15 out of 18 cities and towns.
In Belgrade Mr Vuk Draskovic, one of the leaders of the opposition Together coalition, urged Mr Milosevic to come out and meet the marchers and explain what was going on.
The protesters snaked their way past the parliament, the presidency building and the headquarters of the state run television building.
Earlier, students had demanded a face to face meeting with Mr Milosevic and recognition of the opposition victory.
"Accept our outstretched hand because we will fight for democracy with or without you, an open letter from the students addressed to Mr Milosevic said.
In Serbia's second city of Nis, in the south, between 20,000 and 25,000 people were demonstrating, an opposition Yugoslav parliament deputy, Mr Branislav Jovanovic, said.
Opposition officials said that thousands, and in some cases tens, of thousands, were demonstrating in the towns of Kraljevo, Novi Sad Cacak and Kragujevac.
Mr Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party maintains that the elections are a "domestic matter", but Western governments have warned the Serbian leader not to use force to quell the protests.
Germany and France were the latest to express concern about the situation yesterday, while Britain warned that the use of force could result in a "harsh response" from the international community.
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, said that those who tried to limit democratic freedoms "must bear the consequences."
In France the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Jacques Rummelhardt, warned the authorities against resorting to force.
Washington has urged western European countries to withhold trade privileges and threatened to prevent rump Yugoslavia being allowed back into international organisations.
EU foreign ministers are to decide tomorrow whether to implement a plan to grant rump Yugoslavia trade privileges.
. Serbian state media said a Socialist party chief in Nis, Mr Mile Ilic, offered his resignation yesterday in a concession to opposition protests that swept the country this month.