Police detain protesters during clashes in Tbilisi May 26, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

TBILISI - Georgian riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon on Thursday to disperse several hundred opposition protesters demanding the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili, a Reuters reporter said.

Dozens of protesters were detained by police and taken away to minibuses with their hands restrained with plastic cords.

A Reuters reporter saw a riot policeman beat one protester with a baton. Emergency workers were tending to several people with blood on their faces.

Protesters calling for Saakashvili to quit and for early elections had refused to end five days of protests in the capital to make way for an Independence Day military parade planned for later in the day.

Opponents accuse the 43-year-old pro-Western leader of monopolising power since the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that ousted the post-Soviet old guard in the Caucasus state, where pipelines carry Caspian oil to the West.

"The people of Georgia seek nothing more than freedom to determine their own future and for too long their wishes have been swept to one side by President Saakashvilli's iron fisted authoritarian rule," opposition leader Nino Burjanadze said in a statement before the protest.

"He has spent millions of dollars in the West portraying himself as a democratic leader when in fact he has tried to crush any domestic opposition to his tyranny," she said.

About 5,000 people gathered for the protest and several hundred refused to disperse as demanded by local authorities.

Weakened by losing a brief war with Russia in August 2008, Saakashvili has since reasserted control. He is due to step down as president in 2013 when his term ends.