Ferenc Gyurcsany, the Hungarian Prime Minister, said today that he would not tolerate the anti-government protesters who clashed with police in a second night of rioting and pledged to continue with his programme of modernisation.

The Prime Minister remained defiant in spite of demands for his resignation from about 10,000 angry demonstrators outside the parliament building in Budapest last night, chanting: "Resign, resign! You screwed up."

Riot police used water cannons and teargas guns to try to disperse the protesters, some of whom later tried to attack the Socialist Party offices.

The protesters want Mr Gyurcsany to step down and to apologise, after leaked tapes were broadcast in which he admits telling lies about the economy to retain power in elections in April.

The Prime Minister told a cabinet meeting this morning: "We will have no patience with them (the demonstrators). The government will hold firm on the only track possible: the policies of reform to ensure the development and economic stability of the country. We will work without reversing course."

Mr Gyurcsany's government’s popularity has plunged to 25 per cent from around 40 per cent at the election, after he introduced financial austerity measures. He blamed "radicals" for the riots, and said that the opposition had not acted to calm protests.

"I am afraid that those political parties which could have stopped this and called the people back ... failed to take the steps which we had discussed in parliament."

Fidesz and its Christian Democrat allies are the main opposition parties in parliament and stood on a joint ticket in April. Viktor Orban, the head of the centre-right Fidesz party, also demanded the prime minister’s resignation, calling him a "sick, lying dilettante".

And Janos Ader, a senior Fidesz official who is also vice president of the parliament, told public television today: "The prime minister and his government must go regardless of the outcome of local elections," in less than two weeks’ time.

The police said that there was a hard core of 1,000-2,000 rioters who had attached themselves to peaceful protesters. Officers were on the alert for a repeat tonight.

Arpad Szabadfi, Hungary’s Deputy Chief of Police, told a news conference this morning : "An overwhelming majority of the people there (rioting) are young and a large portion of them are known football hooligans."

The police said that around 200 people had been injured and that they had made 137 arrests.

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