Georgia's opposition Tuesday accused President Mikheil Saakashvili of staging an alleged coup plot in order to distract from domestic political troubles.

"I have the impression this is nothing but a theatrical show staged by Saakashvili to distract people from the ongoing protests against his rule," opposition leader David Gamkrelidze of the New Rights party told AFP.

He said the opposition had temporarily canceled plans to start a new campaign of blocking key highways in the country Tuesday.

"We have postponed our plan to block highways. But we will continue protests and the planned action to block traffic on highways across Georgia will certainly take place," he said.

Georgian officials said Tuesday that troops at a base outside Tbilisi had briefly mutinied on the eve of NATO exercises and accused Russia of backing an attempted coup.

Officials said the incident ended without violence after most mutineers surrendered.

Georgia's opposition had on Monday vowed to block key highways in the country in an effort to step up pressure on Saakashvili after nearly a month of anti- government protests.

The protests have been the biggest and longest demonstrations against Saakashvili's rule since last year's war with Russia, but the number of participants has steadily dwindled after peaking at 60,000 when protests started on April 9.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.