About 3,000 supporters of the former Albanian president, Mr Sali Berisha, demonstrated in Tirana for the second day running yesterday as parliament considered stripping him of his parliamentary immunity in light of charges he was leading a coup d'etat.
Mr Berisha, for his part, seemed unperturbed, calling on his supporters to continue with daily protests aimed at "overthrowing the dictatorship" of the Prime Minister, Mr Fatos Nano.
"Those who have overthrown the dictatorship of [Enver] Hoxha, will overthrow the dictatorship of the terrorists," he said.
"Those who think of the restoration of neo-communism are making a mistake," Mr Berisha said, adding: "I will never leave my country."
He spoke with reporters as his supporters gathered in front of his Democratic Party (PD) headquarters, before joining them on a march through the streets of central Tirana which passed off without incident.
Meanwhile, the embattled Mr Nano yesterday ruled out negotiating with Berisha supporters, whom he in turn accused of being "terrorists".
It is out of the question "to negotiate with terrorists who refuse to surrender their weapons," Mr Nano told reporters at the main government building, whose facade was riddled with bullet holes from the unrest of recent days.
He said he would "go all the way" in his attempt to indict Mr Berisha on charges of staging a coup d'etat.
"I am not the general prosecutor but I defend the constitution through legal means," he said.
He accused supporters of Mr Berisha of being holed up at his Democratic Party headquarters with weapons in their attempt to topple the government and renewed his call for them to surrender their weapons.
The opposition has sought Mr Nano's ousting since an opposition deputy and close associate of Mr Berisha was murdered at the weekend along with his body guard.
Mr Berisha is accused by the Albanian authorities of stirring up unrest in the capital, which has left eight dead and 80 injured in the past three days, according to the interior ministry.
The interior ministry spokesman, Mr Artan Bizhga, said yesterday that all the dead were antigovernment demonstrators or looters with a single exception, a barman who was shot by unidentified gunmen in Ndrog, 15 km south of Tirana.
An Albanian parliamentary commission, on the request of the State Prosecutor, was to meet yesterday to decide whether to strip Mr Berisha, along with four other PD officials, of parliamentary immunity Assembly sources said.
Two-thirds of the deputies present at the session were expected to vote in favour of the measure. A socialist deputy said, however, that it was unlikely a decision would be made yesterday.