Moscow/Tbilisi  - Georgian police arrested at least seven opposition supporters on arms charges Monday in a raid that their party called a "campaign of terror" ahead of protests against President Mikheil Saakashvili next month.

The Interior Ministry said 10 people had been arrested for purchasing automatic weapons and rolled video footage at a press conference late Monday that it said showed the involvement of members of the opposition party led by Nino Burjanadze, news agency Interfax reported.

Burjanadze, the former parliamentary speaker and prominent ally of Saakashvili's, is among several opposition leaders planning a series of mass anti-government protest from April 9.

Burjanadze said the party members were detained during an early morning police raid of the party chairman's home in Georgia's Black Sea region of Adjara.

"This action by the authorities is an attempt to terrorize society and seed suspicion about the legality of the planned April 9 protest rally," Burjanadze told reporters in Tbilisi.

While Saakashvili came to power amid a wave of popular uprising in 2003, many of his former allies have joined the opposition, accusing him of falling short of promises.

The planned rallies to call for Saakashvili's resignation, charging him with gross misjudgment in Tbilisi's crushing military defeat by Russia during a push to take back the separatist region of South Ossetia last August.

Saakashvili has refused to step down, saying the military actions in August were provoked by Russian aggression.

He had the firm backing of the United States in the August conflict and in aspiration to join NATO, but many Western powers had balked at violent government crackdowns on opposition protests in November 2007. (dpa)