(AFP) Georgia on Monday charged the husband of top opposition leader Nino Burjanadze with attacking security forces after violent protests aimed at ousting President Mikheil Saakashvili rocked Tbilisi.

Badri Bitsadze was "charged with creating paramilitary groups and organising attacks on policemen during the protest," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

It also released a new batch of what it said were taped conversations between opposition leaders alleging to show Burjanadze's supporters organising a small paramilitary force that could sweep the US-backed leader from power.

Georgian riot police broke up the protest last Thursday using tear gas and rubber bullets after the opposition rejected the government's offer to move their demonstration to an alternative location.

One of the transcripts released by the Georgian authorities purports to show Burjanadze's husband saying "this is a really big force".

A policeman and a former officer were killed when a motorcade belonging to the opposition sped away from the bloody clashes.

Saakashvili's decision to call in riot police to make room for a planned military parade sparked outrage in Georgia's arch-rival Russia but drew more cautious responses from the US embassy in Tbilisi and some European officials.

Bitsadze is currently not under arrest and prosecutors have requested that he remain at liberty on bail pending a trial.

But the interior ministry said that on the night of the violence it had detained 24 "armed people" loyal to another member of the opposition now hiding in Russia.

"The aim of the above-mentioned group was to stage armed provocations on the territory of Georgia," the interior ministry statement said.

Georgia regularly accuses Russia of providing financial and other assistance to Saakashvili's political rivals.

Saakashvili himself said the latest protests were being orchestrated by the "occupier" -- a reference to the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008 and Moscow's subsequent recognition of the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions.

Russia has denied any link to Burjanadze -- who met Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 4 -- and condemned Saakashveli's decision to call in the riot police as another sign of his authoritarianism.

Burjanadze meanwhile says she has not broken any laws or taken steps that could been seen as harmful to Georgia's state interests.

"There was no resistance to the police, no paramilitary groups were involved," she told AFP in reference to the charges against her husband.

"The authorities have engaged in a slow moral and political murder of Burjanadze," she added, referring to herself in the third person.

The opposition has vowed to press on with the demonstrations, and several thousands came out on the streets again over the weekend.

Saakashvili rose to power in the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution and analysts expect him to keep a dominant role in politics after his term expires in 2013.