Mounted police in battle with violent protesters

Hungarian mounted police charged bottle-hurling protesters outside Socialist Party headquarters early today, in renewed unrest sparked by the prime minister's leaked admission that his government had repeatedly lied about the economy.

Up to 50 people were reported injured, including one policeman. The state MTI news agency said the officer was seriously hurt in the clashes in Budapest, which - as on the previous day - involved splinter groups separate from a larger demonstration massing about 10,000 people.

The confrontation demonstrated continued high potential for violence amid radical opponents of prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, whose taped comments set off the country's worst violence since its failed anti-Soviet revolution 50 years ago after being leaked on the weekend.

MTI said total police at the scene numbered around 1,000. It reported several police cars burning and said demonstrators were also were tearing chunks of plaster from nearby buildings to throw at police.

The latest violence came just a day after hundreds of demonstrators stormed and vandalised part of the state television building, in clashes that left more than 100 people hurt. Today's confrontation erupted after the demonstrators apparently threatened to move in on the party building and ignored police orders shouted through bullhorns to disperse.

Police succeeded in scattering the protesters, then scuffled with small groups in side roads. Wailing sirens signalled the approach of police reinforcements, who blocked access to the area to the media.

An ambulance crew was seen attending to an injured officer while other police hustled away individual demonstrators.

The protesters then regrouped, blocking a main thoroughfare with rubbish containers and park benches. A bus, its windscreen broken, was caught in the swirling mass of police and demonstrators. As the confrontation neared its third hour, police split the crowd into three groups and deployed water cannons to push them into different directions in a new attempt to disperse them.

MTI, quoting police, said about 50 people had been detained by the time the clashes ended.

The violent group had split away from the estimated 10,000 people gathered in Kossuth Square, the vast plaza abutting the neo-Gothic parliament building. Dozens in the square waved Hungarian flags, and some of the demonstrators set up small tents, signalling they intended to stay at least overnight.

Most had left by early today, but some insisted they would remain until the resignation of Gyurcsany.

"I hope we can accomplish our goal," said Tamas Szep, 48, a paint supplies wholesaler. "Not only the prime minister, but all of his sidekicks have to go."

Protesters accused the governing coalition of lying to win the April elections, but people also were upset over tax increases and other economic austerity measures that Gyurcsany has ordered over the last three months.

Opposition leader Viktor Orban, whose centre-right FIDESZ party lost in the elections, also demanded the prime minister's resignation, describing him as "a sick, lying dilettante".

But Gyurcsany - whose taped comments admitting his government had "lied morning, evening and night" about the economy provoked the fury - said he intended to weather the storm.

"I'm staying and I'm doing my job. I'm extremely committed to fulfilling my programme, fiscal adjustments and reforms," he told The Associated Press.

"I know it's very difficult for the people, but it's the only direction for Hungary."

Police were caught off guard the previous night by the fury of a few thousand people who broke away from the main demonstration and stormed the state TV building. Pushing past officers with protective helmets, clubs and shields, about 400 got inside, breaking glass and causing other damage.

The violence shook a country that for much of its last two decades had been held up as a model of progress following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe.

About 150 people were injured in yesterday's violence, including 102 police officers. Gyurcsany called it Hungary's "longest and darkest night" since the end of communist rule in 1989.