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TBILISI - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili appointed a new prime minister who promised he would listen to the people after mass protests triggered a crisis in the ex-Soviet state.
Saakashvili lifted a state of emergency imposed after police used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up the protests although the Imedi television station, which has been sharply critical of his rule, remained off the air.
Saakashvili told journalists he had chosen the 36-year-old chairman of the Bank of Georgia, Lado Gurgenidze, to replace Zurab Nogaideli as prime minister.
"We will continue our development faster. We are getting a new prime minister, which means we have new energy, and a new serious stimulus," Saakashvili said.
Bank of Georgia is the country's largest bank and the only company listed on the London stock exchange. Gurgenidze has dual Georgian and British citizenship, studied in the United States and is married to an American.
His appointment must be approved by parliament which is dominated by Saakashvili supporters.
The president is running in a Jan. 5 election he called to ease the crisis. But his crackdown has badly dented the image he has tried to build as a champion of democracy and dismayed his Western allies.
Gurgenidze said the new government would take heed of the protesters who flooded Tbilisi earlier this month, some of whom expressed anger over living standards.
"The message of his excellency, the people, has been heard and understood. This is that greater emphasis should be put on social problems," he told reporters.
"My main aim, if I am confirmed, is to build dialogue between the people, local business, foreign investors, and the Georgian diaspora."
Saakashvili said the new government's priorities would be to raise pensions and teachers' wages, and fight unemployment.
Saakashvili swept to power in a peaceful 2003 revolution. Many Georgians who supported him then now say his economic reforms, which have been applauded by the International Monetary Fund, have not delivered better living standards fast enough.
The opposition says his style of rule is authoritarian, citing arrests of opponents on corruption charges.
This week Georgian state television has shown Saakashvili meeting doctors and teachers in informal settings and promising pay rises.
Multi-millionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, who is an opposition leader and Imedi's main owner, said Saakashvili had no intention of holding a fair election.
"This is the latest farce and deception of Saakashvili," he told Reuters by telephone.
Listing the steps he said Saakashvili should take he said: "Those conditions are the opening of the media and especially Imedi, which they do not want to open, and the closing of the criminal cases against potential presidential candidates, including against me."
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is a major shareholder in Imedi and controls the station after Patarkatsishvili gave it power of attorney over his stake.
A judge has banned Imedi from broadcasting. Georgia's Prosecutor-General wants to question Patarkatsishvili on suspicion of plotting a coup, a charge he denies.
- REUTERS
