BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of protesters set fire to Hungary's state television building early Tuesday after a rally outside national parliament denouncing Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany as a liar. Smoke and tear gas wreathed the headquarters of state television MTV, where riot police clashed with demonstrators. 

    Scores of protesters hurled bottles and cobblestones at riot police, who fired tear gas to try to stop them from forcing their way into the offices of state television to publicize their protest.

    Protesters shouted "56" in memory of Hungary's failed uprising against Soviet rule in October 1956.

    Some people had been reported injured, police sources said.

    The protests were sparked by the leak of a tape in which Gyurcsany admits he had "lied in the morning and lied in the evening" about the government's record to secure re-election in April.

    The protest started on Sunday in front of the parliment building. The protesters said they would hand in a petition to parliament, demanding the resignation of Gyurcsany and his government.

    Then on Monday, the number of protesters rose to 10,000, many of them from the country's conservative opposition. They went to the streets outside the broadcast center.

    At a party meeting, which took place a month after the Socialist-Liberal coalition took office for an unprecedented second consecutive term, Gyurcsany said on the tape, "We screwed up ... No European country has done something as idiotic as us. We lied throughout the last two years."

    On Sunday evening, the prime minister told commercial television ATV that his remarks that "we lied" did not refer to the overall state of the economy, but was about the general lies voiced over several years.

    Gyurcsany added that he wanted to make his party MPs understand that there were no other viable options but reform.

    Hungary's main opposition Fidesz and its ally Christian Democrat KDNP, called on the government to resign at a joint press conference on Monday morning.

    "The government should go, Ferenc Gyurcsany is unwanted in Hungarian politics," said Tibor Navracsics, Fidesz's parliamentary group leader. Enditem

    (Agencies)