As demonstrators protested in Minsk against his retention of power beyond his elected mandate, the President of Belarus, Mr Alexander Lukashenko, announced that he would stay in power "for a long time".
Mr Lukashenko's term of office was due to expire on Tuesday, but in a controversial referendum in 1996 he had his term as president extended to 2001.
In a statement issued yesterday, the US State Department spokesman, Mr James Rubin, said Mr Lukashenko's "legitimacy as an elected representative of the Belarusian people" could be restored only by free and fair democratic elections. He described the referendum which extended Mr Lukashenko's term as "widely con demned by the international community."
Belarus, a former Soviet republic with a population of 10 million, became independent following the dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1991. Belarus borders Poland and Lithuania as well as the Russian Federation with which Mr Lukashenko, despite internal opposition, intends to reunite his country.
Under Mr Lukashenko's presidency, claims have been made for Belarus as something of a "Slavic Tiger" with economic growth rates of 10 per cent per annum, figures scoffed at by Western economists. They regard the exchange rate of the Belarusian rouble, which stands at more than 300,000 to the US dollar, as a more accurate indicator of the country's economic status.
The Belarus capital, Minsk, currently resembles a sort of Soviet theme park with a statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the KGB's forerunner, and a factory bearing the slogan: "Glory to the indivisible union of Hammer and Sickle".
On his official website, Mr Lukashenko is praised to the skies. For example, Ivan Petrovich Shamyakin (Peoples' Writer of Belarus and Hero of Socialist Labour), writes:
"It is with great interest that I always listen to the speeches of our president. Irrefutable logic of Alexander Grigoryevich, profound reasoning in explaining the facts, clear thinking, capacity to answer any question, even a malevolent attack of an opponent, right off the bat, as they would say - these are qualities of the high-class propagandist.
"However, when holding such a high position, it is important not only to be able to speak well but to be able to act promptly taking the initiative. Lukashenko is in excellent possession of such a quality. He not only provides guidance from a high `throne' but carries out a titanic work, even taking sometimes preliminary job which could be done by the assistants in the Presidential Administration and in the Council of Ministers."
There are others, however, who do not echo these thoughts. One of them, Mr Alexander Pushkin (33), was arrested yesterday for wheeling a cart-load of dung, with Mr Lukashenko's portrait attached, to the headquarters of the presidential administration in Minsk yesterday.
A hundred miles away in Vitebsk, Mr Lukashenko was unrepentant. "I will remain legitimate for a long time. I have not yet done everything; that is why I will be in power for a long time," he told reporters.