A 15-day state of emergency imposed in Georgia amid mass anti-government rallies last week will be lifted on Friday, the parliament's speaker said on Wednesday.

A U.S envoy says he expects Georgian authorities to lift their nearly weeklong state of emergency in two or three days.

Georgia's opposition said on Monday that lawmaker and wine businessman Levan Gachechiladze would run in the January 5 early presidential elections as its single candidate.

A Georgian opposition leader said on Monday tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili would not be nominated as the single opposition candidate in the January 5 early elections.

Georgia's parliament formally approved a nationwide state of emergency on Friday, which President Mikheil Saakashvili declared amid mass anti-government protests two days ago. The legislature, dominated by presidential supporters, voted unanimously in favor.

Saakashvili, the president of nation of Georgia, said in his televised address to the nation in Tbilisi: "I have a proposal to hold presidential elections on January 5, 2008."

After months of tension and more than a week of strikes, the Georgian Government has locked down the country's capital, declaring a 15-day state of emergency.

Mikhail Saakashvili the Georgian president declared a state of emergency for the whole country for 15 days due to opposition protests against his rule.

Democracy is just nothing when it’s a political crisis. Security forces clashed with anti-government protesters in Tbilisi on Wednesday, driving them from the street in front of parliament and breaking up another rally.

Georgian authorities are threatening to launch an international manhunt for President Mikhail Saakashvili's top political foe after he appeared on television to accuse the president of corruption.

A former Georgian defense minister, facing several charges in Georgia, has threatened revenge on President Mikheil Saakashvili should his family suffer as a result of his political statements.

Thousands of opposition supporters protested for the fourth consecutive day in Georgia's capital on Monday demanding the president's resignation and earlier elections.