Once again, extensive clashes with police in the streets, protesters throwing fireworks at officers who've responded with tear gas and water cannon.

Last week, the Prime Minister said he would put European Union accession talks on hold, despite polls suggesting widespread support for membership.

And that's what triggered this latest round of demonstrations.

Georgia's pro-EU president has been speaking to the BBC and dismissed the negative image of the protests being presented.

The Georgian president there.

Our correspondent, our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, has the latest from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

At night, Georgia's capital looks and sounds like this.

A standoff between the security forces and anti-government protesters.

This is happening night after night now in Tbilisi.

Protesters firing fireworks and the riot police responding with tear gas.

Once again, Georgian police dispersed thousands of protesters.

Earlier, we saw university staff and students gathering for a protest, angry that their government suspended Georgia's bid to join the European Union.

Georgians see that this way, Georgia is dragged into Russia's orbit, basically, and also becomes a fully autocratic country.

So that's a turning point.

And now I think there is this feeling of now or never.

They marched through the city, calling for others to join them.

And they declared that Georgia was Europe.

No one in Georgia knows where this confrontation is heading, how it's going to end, and who will tire first, the protesters or the authorities?

Georgia's prime minister suggested that what was happening on the streets was a foreign-funded revolution that had failed.

Not everyone has joined the protests.

Scarf seller Georgi told me he has friends in Europe, but also in Russia.

But he admits he's shocked by video images of police beating protesters.

The way some of the police kicked our sons and brothers, how could that happen?

But I do have friends in the police.

And on the other side, there are youngsters whose hearts beat for this country.

Georgia needs to sort this out on its own, without anyone interfering.

The authorities say they will sort this out their way.

But the use of force hasn't kept protesters off the streets or extinguished their hope.

Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Tbilisi.

Well, I asked Rehan Dimitri if the protesters planned to continue.

It appears to be so, Karen.

So there's no sign of any of the sides backing off.

We saw another night of quite tense confrontations between the police on one side firing tear gas, deploying water cannon, or chasing protesters, individual protesters, arresting them.

And on the other side, barricades, makeshift barricades erected by the protesters who are firing fireworks in return against the police.

These protests are driven by the country's youth.

It appears that they are in a way kind of self-organized.

There's no protest leader.

There are no opposition leaders who are addressing the crowd or telling them what to do.

They appear to be self-organized.

Quite a lot of anger in the streets.

And I was there yesterday.

So when police started moving, pushing quite kind of roughly the protesters away from the main point of the protest, which is outside the parliament, people just move to nearby streets.

Then they block traffic.

They create more kind of trouble in other parts of the town.

But one thing is clear.

They're not afraid of the use that is being used by the police, and they are determined to make their voices heard.

And their demand is for the government to hold fresh elections, because October 26 parliamentary elections are being disputed by the country's opposition, which is boycotting the parliament.

The opposition, protesters and the country's pro-Western president are saying that the elections were rigged.

So they want new elections, and they want a very clear message that this country is going back on its path to Europe.

Briefly, Reyhan, you mentioned a pro-European, pro-Western president on the side of the protesters, a pro-Russian prime minister on the other side.

How much is this a pull, push between those two different spheres of influence?

Well, the prime minister and the Georgian Dream government, they deny that they're being pro-Russian.

They never say it publicly.

But I think them turning their back on Europe and putting the EU accession talks on hold for four years is what reinforced the belief that protesters and pro-Western part of Georgian society had all along, that this government is acting in Russia's interest and not in the interest of the people who want to see their country as part of the European Union.