The Kyrgyz opposition on Saturday maintained the pressure on President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, protesting in front of his palace for a third day and promising to rally supporters for a larger protest next week.
But only some 1,000 people demonstrated in front of the presidential palace in Bishkek to demand Bakiyev's resignation, far fewer than the 10,000 in evidence when the protest was launched on Thursday.
As the political crisis dragged on, opposition leaders announced a mass protest for on Monday when they intend to boycott a parliamentary session at which Bakiyev is expected to unveil proposed constitutional reforms.
"Our largest demonstration will be on Monday," said Temir Sariev, one of the leaders of the opposition For Reforms movement, which planned to continue occupying the main square on Sunday.
Around 500 demonstrators, including for the first time the leaders of the opposition movement, pitched tents late on Saturday in the heart of the capital and prepared to spend the night.
Other demonstrations around the central Asian former Soviet republic were attended by a maximum of 100 people, but there was no sign yet of the kind of national uprising promised by the opposition.
Azimbek Beknazarov, another of the movement's leaders, said that 34 of 75 deputies would observe Monday's boycott, leaving the government with only the slimmest of margins to form the necessary quorum in parliament of 38.
Protests began on Thursday when at the last minute Bakiyev went back on a decision to unveil constitutional reforms that had been negotiated with the opposition and would have introduced new limitations on the president's powers.
Bakiyev took office after a revolution just over a year and a half ago that toppled long-time ruler Askar Akayev. However opposition parties say he has failed to enact reforms and has packed the government with cronies.
About 10,000 people rallied on Bishkek's main square initially, but that had fallen to 2,500 on Friday.
Beknazarov told protestors Saturday that reinforcements were on their way. "We will be joined today by people from the regions, who will also rise up," he said.
Bakiyev accuses opposition figures of planning a "coup d'etat" and the prosecutor's office told AFP on Saturday that an investigation had been opened over the allegation, although no one has yet been indicted.
The allegation followed the distribution in parliament on Friday of what Prime Minister Felix Kulov said were discussions of plans to seize government buildings and KTR state television offices.
Beknazarov said that he and a dozen other opposition leaders had ignored a request from the prosecutor's office to come in for questioning, but that they would comply on Monday.
The demonstrations have so far been good nature and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Alikbek Zhekshenkulov repeated that "force will not be used."
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on a visit to the Bishkek, urged restraint.
"I am pleased by the (authorities') reaction to the demonstrations and I am sure that the path of restraint will be maintained," he told journalists.
It was unclear whether Bakiyev would manage to defuse the crisis with his proposed reforms on Monday.
One opposition leader, Omurbek Tekebayev, said there was a chance that favourable proposals "could open the road to other compromises."
Most businesses in the city centre had reopened by on Saturday morning after owners feared the protests would degenerate into scenes of looting similar to those that characterised the revolution in March 2005.