Kyrgyz leader to unveil constitutional changes

BISHKEK, Nov 6 (Reuters) Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is expected to unveil proposals for constitutional changes today while his opponents said they would stage another big protest to call for his resignation.

Bakiyev, who has barely spoken in public during days of protests against his rule, has not given any details of his plans. But offering to transfer more power to parliament could go some way to assuaging a broad coalition of opposition voices.

Although protests that started last Thursday have waned, the opposition has threatened to seek to paralyse parliament with the help of sympathetic MPs if Bakiyev does not compromise.

The mountainous nation that hosts both Russian and US military airbases has teetered on the brink of crisis since March 2005, when former president Askar Akayev fled violent protests and Bakiyev assumed power, promising reform.

The opposition, which says Bakiyev's rule has been tainted by corruption, nepotism and a failure to tackle the impoverished Central Asian nation's problems, launched the protests after saying Bakiyev had ignored their demands.

''There will be a big protest tomorrow,'' Edil Baisalov, one of the leaders of the opposition For Reform movement, told reporters late yesterday.

''We ask that this protest is seen as one of many events in coming days and weeks and not a turning point or a decisive moment... We are all ready for three months, for six months.'' Despite the opposition's pledge to keep up the pressure, the daily protests have gradually lost momentum. Just a few hundred people showed up on Sunday compared to the estimated 15,000 packed into a central square on Thursday.

Observers say the dwindling protests may lead Bakiyev to assume he has won and make him less willing to compromise.

But the opposition says about 30 of 75 parliamentarians are either on its side or sympathetic to it -- enough to block a quorum and halt legislative work.

Also putting pressure on the opposition is an investigation by prosecutors into electronic recordings of a meeting they held last week that the government says showed they planned a coup.

The opposition denies planning to seize key buildings. An attempt by Prime Minister Felix Kulov on Sunday to cool tempers by asking the prosecutor general to drop the investigation was rebuffed by the prosecutor as legally impossible.

Reuters SBA VP0507