Russia: Kyrgyzstan's president ordered an investigation into reports of widespread election violations yesterday as pro-democracy supporters seized the country's second city, Osh.
President Askar Akayev, the target for opposition anger, ordered the supreme court and election organisers to investigate claims of ballot tampering in the March 17th elections.
His move came as opposition protests spread across the south of the country, with tens of thousands taking to the streets.
Meanwhile, the United States urged both sides to remain calm and called for talks to begin.
Osh is now completely in opposition hands after the unopposed storming of the governor's mansion, following Sunday's seizure of other key buildings.
Also seized was Osh airport, where a group of interior ministry troops loyal to the government were surrounded and kept prisoner in the airport terminal.
In neighbouring Dzhalal Abad, under opposition control since Sunday, protesters used bulldozers yesterday to place rocks across the airport runway to stop loyalist troops being flown in.
In the southern town of Toktogul, protesters are holding captive a district governor and a chief district prosecutor.
Huge crowds gathered in Osh town centre to hear opposition speakers call for calm.
"Power in Osh has been taken over by the people," opposition official Anvar Artykov told cheering crowds.
"I congratulate you on our victory and urge you to keep order."
Presidential aide Abdil Seghizbayev said that as well as investigating claims of fraud, the government wanted talks with the opposition, but were hampered by the lack of a single opposition figure to negotiate with.
"Neither authorities nor opposition leaders can control the crowd right now," he said.
"If an [ opposition] leader emerges who can control the protesters, the government will be ready to talk to him."
Some are already comparing this uprising to Ukraine's Orange Revolution, which saw election results overturned and a corrupt government overthrown.
"The only question now is when the government will be changed," Central Asian expert Arkady Dubnov told a Russian radio station, Ekho Mosvky.
President Akayev (60) was once seen as the most liberal of the five Central Asian presidents.
That changed in 2002 when police shot dead six demonstrators.
Since then, opponents have complained of ever-tighter restrictions on the opposition and the media in the run-up to this year's elections.
The second round of voting, on March 13th, left Mr Akayev with two-thirds support among a confusing array of parties and individuals in the 75-member parliament.
Protests erupted when the official count of the second round of the poll gave the opposition just five seats.
In Osh, demonstrators set up a tented encampment, similar to that seen in Ukraine last December, after results showed the popular opposition leader Adakhan Madumarov as losing his seat.
A hasty recount last week showed that, in fact, he had won the seat by a landslide, but by then the opposition was inflamed.
When police stormed the encampment on Saturday it was the trigger for an opposition backlash that leaves Mr Madumarov's supporters in control of the city.
So far the protests have been peaceful, with 20 people reported injured and 12 police.
"For Akayev, I think the writing is on the wall. It is going to be hard for him to come back and restore his reputation," said David Lewis, the Central Asian projects director from influential think-tank Crisis Group.