Turkish police disperse protestors

Police firing water cannons and tear gas have dispersed protesters who erected street barricades near Turkey’s parliament overnight.

It was the latest face-off between authorities and demonstrators over the government’s response to a protest sit-in which began more than two weeks ago in an Istanbul park.

The pre-dawn melee in Ankara today – on a street also close to the US Embassy - came hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government asked a small delegation of protesters to persuade the hundreds of others occupying Gezi Park to leave.

Mr Erdogan has promised to let the courts – and a possible referendum – decide the fate of a park redevelopment project that has sparked Turkey’s biggest protests in decades.

His supporters were planning weekend counter-demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul.