TAJIK government troops yesterday pushed back a mutinous army force that had advanced towards the capital Dushanbe to press demands for the dismissal of the government of this Central Asian former Soviet state.
Eye witnesses said the rebel leader, Col Makhmoud Khudoyberdyev, had retreated to a mountain pass after advancing to within 15 km of the city and being confronted by pro government soldiers backed by tanks.
There was no fighting as the rebels, who remain loyal to President Imomali Rakhmonov, were apparently reluctant to engage in battle with the presidential guards and irregulars.
The rebels are now camped about 35 km from Dushanbe but have not dropped demands for the sacking of a government which they have condemned as incompetent and corrupt.
Mr Rakhmonov, who was supported by Col Khudoyberdyev in a civil war in 1992, told parliament their action amounted to an attempted military coup.
But he said he was ready to meet the rebels for talks if they gave up their weapons and surrendered. He also suggested he was ready to drop some ministers to avert violence.
"Everything must be done to avoid bloodshed," Mr Rakhmonov said, adding he would do his best to solve the crisis by political means.
Earlier this week, the rebels seized the southern town of Kurgan Tyube and the western town of Tursunzade. Interfax, quoting informed sources, said Tajik interior ministry forces had been deployed around the two rebel held towns but talks were continuing "to localise the conflict".
"These units have the task of shutting off any possible avenues of escape for the mutineers. If they do not lay down their arms within a day, the toughest measures will be taken against them, one of the unnamed sources said.
In Dushanbe, parliament was debating the findings of a 12 member commission set up to negotiate with the rebels.
"We want the insurgents to show good sense. If they don't, there will be too many casualties," a Tajik security source said.
Peacekeeping troops from the Commonwealth of Independent States - mostly Russian troops - were on combat alert in Tajikistan but remained neutral and were not intervening, Interfax said. Russia, which regards Tajikistan as its vulnerable underbelly, has put in thousands of border guards and peacekeepers to underpin Mr Rakhmonov.
The rebellion risked giving a new twist to the civil war that has been simmering for the past three years near the border with Afghanistan.
It has threatened to derail efforts to end the conflict, which now mainly takes the form of cross border raids by opposition forces exiled in Afghanistan.
Mr Rakhmonov's government is taking part in a UN sponsored round of peace talks this week with opposition leaders. Col Khudoyberdyev has demanded that he be included in the government delegation at the talks in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.
The talks coincided with a fresh upsurge in fighting about 200 km east of Dushanbe between government forces and a group of about 300 to 350 opposition guerillas.