Kyrgyz leaders try to put aside

A key Opposition leader Felix Kulov, the new security chief who has persuaded police to return to work and ordered them to open fire on looters, suggested he would not run against acting President Kurmanbek Bakiev in a June 26 presidential vote.

‘‘I am so worried, I emphasise this, that in order to prevent anything bad happening it would be better not to run,’’ Kulov told state television.

Until Thursday, Kulov had been in jail on embezzlement charges he said were politically motivated. He was freed after Opposition protesters seized the government headquarters.

Acting Prosecutor General Azimbek Beknazarov urged the new authorities to end their differences. ‘‘If we do not agree (among ourselves), we will not avoid a civil war,’’ he said.

Feuding to fill the power vacuum has already broken out in parliament, where deputies of the outgoing chamber and those elected in discredited parliamentary polls in February and March vied for legitimacy in competing sessions. Though freed on the wave of protests against the new parliament, Kulov saidhe would obey only the orders from the newly-elected legislature. —Reuters