Saakashvili sworn in after disputed Georgian election

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, taking an oath today for a second term as his country's leader, pledged to calm troubled relations with Russia but also to pull his ex-Soviet republic closer to the United States and the West.

Mr Saakashvili's return to office has been marred, however, by opposition allegations that the January 5 election he won was rigged.

While dozens of foreign dignitaries watched Mr Saakashvili take the oath of office, tens of thousands of opposition activists rallied in another part of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, pressing their demands for a vote recount and demanding his resignation.

The 40-year-old US-educated lawyer is hoping that the election gives him a fresh mandate to press ambitious policies to cultivate prosperity to the poor, Caucasus Mountain nation, bring its breakaway regions into the fold and draw the country closer to the West, in particular Nato.

He called the snap election in response to violent opposition protests in November that brought condemnation from abroad and tarnished his image as a progressive-minded reformer. The opposition maintains the vote was marred by fraud, and its persistence continues to cast uncertainty over Mr Saakashvili's new term.

In an elaborate ceremony outside parliament building, draped with massive bunting in the colours of the Georgian flag, Mr Saakashvili reached out to opposition leaders.

"Our strength is in our unity. We must unite and build our country together," Mr Saakashvili told the thousands who gathered for the ceremony. "We are going down different paths, but we have a common direction."

He repeated calls for repairing ties between with Moscow - ties strained by border disputes and increasing American influence.

Moscow's support for two breakaway regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - has frustrated Mr Saakashvili, who has vowed to restore central government control over them, and the two countries have lacked transport and postal ties since a 2006 spy scandal.

"Four years ago, we extended a hand of friendship and cooperation to Russia. Today, I want to repeat that offer," he said.

Among the guests in attendance was Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who later met with Mr Saakashvili in a meeting publicised prominently on Georgian and Russian television.

The Russian diplomat warned again about the potential for renewed fighting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but responded to calls for improving ties, saying his participation was indication of Moscow's intentions.

"We have agreed to try in the nearest possible future to realize concrete steps (toward normalisation), and I think this is fully realistic," Mr Lavrov was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying.

The inauguration was followed by a military parade that featured heavy weaponry, helicopters and soldiers carrying not Russian-made Kalashnikov rifles but US-made weapons - a sign of Mr Saakashvili's efforts to move his country further from Moscow's orbit toward the West.

The US, which sent just a midlevel Cabinet official, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, to the ceremony, has helped train Georgian military troops and encouraged Tbilisi's efforts to join Nato. In 2005, George Bush became the first American president to visit Georgia.

Mr Saakashvili won more than 53%, according to official results. The opposition claims fraud pushed him over the 50% threshold for an outright victory and wants a run-off with opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze, who officially won about 25%.

Tens of thousands of opposition activists carrying Georgian flags and placards - some of which read in English "Usurpers!" with Hitler-style moustaches drawn on Mr Saakashvili's photograph - pressed their demand for a new vote, rallying for nearly three hours at a site several miles from the inauguration.

Mr Gachechiladze told the crowd that the opposition would refrain from violence, but he warned of mass protests leading up to parliamentary elections in May.

"There is no president in Georgia, because the people did not give impostor Mikhail Saakashvili any mandate of trust," he said.