ARMENIA:THE US has urged Armenia's warring political forces to start talking after a night of rioting in which eight people were killed and dozens more injured.
President Robert Kocharyan imposed a state of emergency in the capital, effective until March 20th, and ordered troops on to the streets after opposition demonstrators, protesting at what they say was a rigged election, hurled petrol bombs, looted stores and set vehicles ablaze.
Troops lined the streets and a few armoured personnel carriers could be seen yesterday, though there was no sign of fresh clashes.
Opposition leader Levon Ter- Petrosyan, who says he was cheated during last month's vote, remained under house arrest.
In Washington, the State Department has called on all sides "to avoid further violence, act fully within the law, exercise maximum restraint and resume political dialogue". The US is also concerned about disturbances in a region which is emerging as a key transit area for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea to Western markets.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe sent an envoy to Yerevan yesterday to meet the government over the unrest in the former Soviet republic and close Moscow ally.
Police fought pitched battles on Saturday night with opposition supporters who have held daily protests since prime minister Serzh Sarksyan - a close ally of the current president - was elected the new president.
Mr Kocharyan accused demonstrators of firing weapons and grenades and planning a coup d'etat. The opposition said police had attacked a peaceful protest.
US-based group Human Rights Watch said police used excessive force at the demonstrations, detaining groups of protesters and beating them. The violence was the worst in the impoverished mountainous country of 3.2 million people since 1998, when a mass uprising forced Mr Ter-Petrosyan to resign.