TBILISI (AFP) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Saturday defended the arrest of a former minister who had accused him of plotting murder, as opponents vowed to continue protests that have drawn thousands to the streets.

In a clear reference to tensions with Moscow, Saakashvili also said that ""ill-wishers"" were seeking to sow chaos in Georgia.
Up to 10,000 people demonstrated in Georgia on Friday against the arrest of former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, who was detained after alleging that Saakashvili had ordered the killing of high-profile figures, including a prominent businessman with links to the opposition.
""Okruashvili's allegations are false and he knows it very well,"" Saakashvili said in televised remarks after interrupting a foreign trip to return to the capital Tbilisi.
""Georgia, unlike many other places, enjoys freedom of the press. Everyone can say whatever they want and as much as they want. But you cannot blackmail people who have a clear conscience,"" Saakashvili said.
Friday's protest outside parliament marked the most serious challenge to Saakashvili's authority since he took office. It was held in the same place where thousands of demonstrators chanted Saakashvili's name during the 2003 ""Rose Revolution"" that swept him to power.
Okruashvili's supporters accused the president of trying to silence a potential rival and said the arrest undermined Saakashvili's credentials as a democratic reformer.
Georgia's opposition parties vowed to continue demonstrations calling for the resignation of Saakashvili and his government. They did not specify when the next protest would be held.
""The protest movement in Georgia is rapidly gaining force,"" said Levan Berdzenishvili, a lawmaker from the opposition Republican Party.
Long fractured by infighting, most of Georgia's opposition parties agreed at a meeting on Saturday to unite under one banner.
""We will use all legal forms of protest. We are preparing for an electoral revolution,"" Berdzenishvili said.
Saakashvili later Saturday traveled to a Georgian-controlled area on the border of the breakaway region of Abkhazia, where he hinted that Russia had a hand in the turmoil.
""Georgia has ill-wishers who wait for any mistake to devour us,"" he was quoted as saying by Interfax. ""Our ill-wishers know very well that when Georgia is united, it is invincible. But they know there is always a percentage of traitors they can use... to cast Georgia into chaos.""
Saakashvili's vows to bring his country into NATO and the European Union have infuriated Moscow, which has cut travel links with Georgia and imposed a ban on key Georgian exports.
Saakashvili returned to Georgia on Saturday from New York, where he had been speaking before the UN General Assembly.
He had been due to travel from the United States to Greece for an October 1-2 state visit, but it was unclear whether he would continue to Greece on Monday.
A Georgian court ruled Saturday that Okruashvili would spend two months in pre-trial detention during an investigation into charges of corruption, money laundering, abuse of power and negligence.
After being fired last year, Okruashvili re-emerged this week with an announcement he was forming an opposition party, the Movement for United Georgia.
Though he produced no evidence, he alleged Saakashvili had ordered him to kill prominent public figures while he was a minister.
Georgia is to hold presidential and parliamentary elections next year, and analysts said Okruashvili had the credibility and power base to pose a threat to Saakashvili in the polls.
Saakashvili has cultivated close ties with Western countries, in particular the United States, which has provided substantial economic and military aid to the small mountainous state on Russia's southern border.