Army warns protesters after eight die in Armenia

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's military said on Sunday it would confront opposition protests with force, a day after riots killed eight people in the ex-Soviet state.

Outgoing President Robert Kocharyan imposed a 20-day emergency on the capital Yerevan on Saturday after protesters accusing him of rigging last month's presidential election battled police with petrol bombs and sticks.

"Any attempt to organise mass actions will immediately be confronted by very strong counteractions from Armenia's military forces," General Seyran Ohanyan, the chief of the Armenian military staff, said in a statement.

"I'm asking you in particular to restrain from attempts to gather even in small groups in the city of Yerevan."

Opposition leader and former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan blamed police brutality for the violence.

"We won't give up, we will be fighting to the very end," the charismatic 63-year-old told reporters at a briefing at his Soviet-built mansion. But he urged supporters to wait until the end of the emergency laws to protest again in Yerevan.

Ter-Petrosyan's supporters say Kocharyan has run a corrupt state where only those with ties to the elite have access to economic opportunities. The government denies this.

They accuse him of rigging the presidential election in favor of his ally Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan.

Ter-Petrosyan, who officially won 21.5 percent compared to Sarksyan's 53 percent, also said he was now under house arrest.

In Washington, the State Department said in a statement both sides should "avoid further violence, act fully within the law, exercise maximum restraint and resume political dialogue".

The United States is home to a sizeable Armenian community and is also concerned about disturbances in the Caucasus, an oil transit route between the Caspian Sea and Europe where it is competing against Russia for influence.

CITY NIGHTMARE

Soldiers poured into Yereven and sealed off its main squares. Burnt out cars littered the streets and shopkeepers swept away broken glass after looting.

"It's a nightmare. Look at what they've done to our city," 25-year-old student Emma Karapetyan said. "I hate both opposition leaders and our authorities."

Armored personal carriers maneuvered into position and trucks carrying coils of barbed-wire trundled around the city.

The violence was the worst in the impoverished mountainous country of 3.2 million people since 1998, when a mass uprising forced Ter-Petrosyan to resign. It is not clear how many of the dead were police and how many protesters.

Kocharyan accused demonstrators of firing weapons and grenades and planning a coup d'etat. The opposition rejected this, saying police had attacked a peaceful protest.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's human rights and security watchdog, sent a special envoy to Armenia to try to end the unrest.

The envoy, 68-year old diplomat Heikki Talvitie, was scheduled to arrive in Yerevan on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by James Kilner in Yerevan and Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow)

(Writing by James Kilner in Yerevan; editing by Myra MacDonald)