Moscow/Tbilisi - More than 10,000 took to the streets of Georgia's capital Monday to protest the win of President Mikheil Saakashvili's party in last week's parliamentary elections.

The US-educated Saakashvili's image was tarnished when similar protest in November led to clashes with police and forced a snap polls, which saw the western-leaning leader's re-election.

That the pro-presidential United National Movement party retained its two-thirds majority in the May 21 vote shored up Saakashvili's power, ensuring a legislative support large enough to amend the constitution.

Supporters of the nine-party opposition coalition gathered after a military parade marking Georgia's Independence Day. Demonstrators marched to the parliament in a scene evoking the 2003peaceful Rose Revolution that saw Saakashvili to power.

"This peace procession," the head of the opposition coalition Levan Ganchechiladze was quoted by Interfax in Tbilisi as saying.

"The opposition parties refuse their deputies' mandates. We demand a new vote," he declared. "The Georgian people have not been allowed to make a free choice, the results have been forged, and authorities have put pressure on the voters to appropriate their victory."

Saakashvili, meanwhile, called for the opposition to desist and for dialogue.

"We offer a hand of dialogue to everybody. I do not think that all representatives of the opposition will not enter the parliament. I am sure that very many representatives of the opposition will be in the parliament," he told a news conference in Tbilisi.

The OSCE judged the vote if not the campaign to fit democratic norms, but the size of the protest, the largest since November, cast a shadow on Saakashvili's election win at a time of tension with Russia over Georgia's breakaway republics have muddied its bid for NATO membership.

Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev sent word to Saakashvili on the national holiday expressing hope for better relations.

"I count on constructive cooperation between our countries in the interests of developing good neighbourly relations and the strengthening of stability and security in the Caucasus," Medvedev said in a message posted on the Kremlin website Monday.

After rallying speeches opposition leaders asked supporters to go home, but only until a repeat protest to be timed for the parliament's first session - in a sign of continued unrest for the capital. (dpa)