Police break up protests

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko's riot police yesterday broke up days of street protests over his reelection, but the opposition, undeterred, said it would go ahead with a weekend rally against him.

Police wearing riot helmets and carrying batons swooped in the early hours on around 200 demonstrators camped out in Minsk's October Square and drove them off in trucks.

They were taken to a detention centre pending trial.

The demonstrators were pressing for a rerun of Sunday's poll which handed Mr Lukashenko five more years in power in the ex-Soviet state that he rules with an iron grip. The opposition says the poll was blatantly rigged.

The US and the EU issued separate statements saying they planned to impose restrictions on Belarus, including a travel ban, in the wake of the election.

Despite the arrests, opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich said Mr Lukashenko's foes would not be deterred from holding a peaceful rally - also unauthorised - today as planned.

"We have scheduled the rally for (March) 25th and we will hold it on the 25th no matter what," said Mr Milinkevich, adding that demonstrators would avoid any violent clashes with police.

If authorities sealed off October Square, where the rally is set for 1000 GMT, protesters would move to a different location which he refused to disclose.

It was not immediately clear what support Milinkevich could expect for the demonstration, which will also mark the independence day of a short-lived Belarussian Republic in 1918.

Mr Lukashenko won the election with an official tally of 83 per cent to six per cent for Mr Milinkevich. Numbers turning out to protest against the poll varied from several thousand to a few hundred.

Dissent is normally quashed quickly in the tightly-policed ex-Soviet state. But authorities have handled these protests with comparative tolerance and police may simply divert protesters away from the city centre and avoid confrontation.

Yesterday's police action drew condemnation from the West, but sympathy from Russia, Mr Lukashenko's big backer.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan condemned the detentions and said Washington planned to impose financial sanctions and travel restrictions against Belarus.