Fireworks erupted over the Georgian capital Tbilisi last night, as hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters hailed the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze as the triumphant climax of a "velvet revolution".
Acting President Mrs Nino Burdzhanadze said she thought the former Soviet foreign minister had left Georgia, despite receiving assurances from his opponents that he faced no danger from huge crowds who had seized parliament and threatened to besiege his residence.
"I see that all this cannot simply go on," an exhausted-looking Mr Shevardnadze said on Georgian television, after meeting opposition leaders and Russian Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov.
"If I was forced tomorrow to use my authority it would lead to a lot of bloodshed. I have never betrayed my country and so it is better that the president resigns."
On the streets of Tbilisi, where more than 50,000 people had massed to demand the end of Mr Shevardnadze's 11-year rule, Georgians fired multi-coloured rockets into the sky, waved red and white opposition flags and chanted "Victory, our victory!" and "He's gone, he's gone!"
Mrs Burdzhanadze praised protesters for their restraint during the stand-off, and evoked memories of 1989's peaceful transfer of power in Czechoslovakia. "There are so many people in the streets and they are really very happy because they tried to fight for freedom and the fight was absolutely peaceful," said the lawyer and former speaker of parliament.
"I am very glad that this was absolutely without blood - it was really a velvet revolution."
Demonstrations were sparked by parliamentary elections this month that international observers said were rigged, and were fuelled by deep-seated resentment towards a regime that Georgians blamed for venal corruption and deepening poverty.
Mr Shevardnadze's position became all but untenable after opposition supporters seized parliament on Saturday, and military battalions threw support behind the opposition or said they would not obey the president's orders.
Mr Mikhail Saakashvili, the US-educated lawyer who led the political fight against Mr Shevardnadze, praised his decision to step down.
"The president has accomplished a courageous act," said Mr Saakashvili. "By his resignation, he avoided spilling blood in the country ... History will judge him kindly."
Mrs Burdzhanadze, standing on the steps of parliament as people sounded their car horns and waved banners behind her, said Mr Shevardnadze had not fulfilled the promise he showed when returning from Moscow to lead his homeland in 1991. "He really lost a great chance to build democracy in Georgia."
Former Soviet leader Mr Mikhail Gorbachev praised Mr Shevardnadze, with whom he worked to end the Cold War. "He is by no means a coward and surely understood that the time had come to take such a step to prevent the break-up of Georgia," he said.
Mrs Burdzhanadze pledged that her interim administration would try to organise fresh elections within 45 days. But she was cagey over whether she would run for the presidency, noting the regional conflicts that still simmer a decade after they killed thousands, and maybe remembering the three assassination attempts on Mr Shevardnadze.