Georgian opposition parties said on Thursday...

The Imedi TV channel sparked panic in Georgia last Saturday with a broadcast that said Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the country"s president was dead. The report used footage from the August 2008 conflict with Russia.

"[We] are filing a lawsuit against Mikheil Saakashvili and Georgy Arveladze over the imitation Imedi Kronika [news report] and will send it to a court next week," said Zurab Nogaideli, leader of the For Fair Georgia opposition party. The former Georgian prime minister demanded Imedi apologize to politicians depicted as traitors in the report.

The Democratic Movement - United Georgia party, led by ex-parliamentary speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, also announced that it would file a lawsuit against the private Imedi TV channel.

Burdzhanadze, who was a key ally of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in the 2003 Rose Revolution but is now a bitter critic of the government, said the broadcast was a riposte to her recent visit to Moscow and talks

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