U.S. says Georgia to lift emergency rule in 3 days

By James Kilner

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia may lift a state of emergency within three days, a U.S. envoy said on Tuesday, a move that could ease Western concerns about President Mikhail Saakashvili's crackdown on democratic freedoms.

The United States and European Union nations have told Saakashvili to end the emergency rule he imposed last Wednesday after police crushed street protests and raided an opposition television station.

Saakashvili has said the measures, which ban independent media and meetings, were needed to prevent a coup and blamed Russia for stirring up trouble.

Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, told reporters after meeting Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze that the measures would be lifted soon.

"It seems from my conversation with the speaker that the state of emergency will be lifted in two or three days. I think on the 16th," Bryza told reporters.

Saakashvili, who surged to power in 2003 on the back of the "Rose Revolution" protests, has steered the former Soviet state westwards and says he wants Georgia to join the NATO military alliance and the European Union.

U.S. President George W. Bush once called Georgia a "beacon of democracy" under Saakashvili.

But Saakashvili's use of riot police and tear gas to crush protests and the storming of Georgia's biggest opposition television station has seriously damaged his reputation.

"BEACONS FLICKER"

Tens of thousands of his opponents who massed in Tbilisi over recent weeks say Saakashvili has usurped power and failed to clamp down hard enough on graft.

Saakashvili's imposition of emergency rule also drew rebukes from NATO and Russia, which has denied any role in the protests.

Bryza avoided condemning the Georgian leader and instead underlined Washington's support.

"Beacons flicker. They go off and on," he said, in a reference to Bush's comment, made in a 2005 speech on Tbilisi's Freedom Square.

Georgia was merely experiencing the growing pains other countries had gone through when moving from a Soviet system to a Western style of government and market reforms, Bryza said.

Bryza said he was confident a January 5 presidential election would be fair but urged Saakashvili to allow opposition television stations to broadcast again.