Kyrgyzstan Opposition Coalition Seizes Power

An opposition coalition in Kyrgyzstan said it has formed an interim government that will rule the turbulent Central Asian nation for six months.

Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva said Thursday she will head the government that dissolved the parliament and will take up legislative duties.

She told a news conference that the new government will conduct negotiations with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who left the capital and is presumably hiding in the central Jalal-Abad region.

However, a Kyrgyz news agency said Bakiyev is refusing to resign despite the bloody uprising.

"I don't admit defeat in any way," Bakiyev said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, but also recognized that "even though I am president, I don't have any real levers of power."

The opposition seized Kyrgyz government headquarters Thursday following clashes between protesters and security forces that have left 68 dead.

Otunbayeva said her government will amend laws on elections and political parties that Bakiyev changed to ensure the his supporters' domination in parliament.

Leaders of the opposition have called previously for the closure of a U.S. air base outside the capital that serves as a key transit point for supplies essential to the war in nearby Afghanistan.

CBS News State Department correspondent Charlie Wolfson reports that the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek was closed until further notice.

The U.S. said Wednesday it was watching the situation closely, and with good reason. Sixteen miles away from the chaos in the capital, there's an American airbase known as "The Gateway to Afghanistan."

Manas air base is a major transit point for the warzone, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. It sent 50,000 U.S. and coalition troops over the boarder in March alone.

U.S. officials said Wednesday the base was "functioning normally" and was secure.

It was not immediately clear Thursday how the new coalition would deal with the U.S. military presence in the country.

Wolfson reports that senior members of the ousted Kyrgyz government were expected to meet Obama administration officials Thursday in Washington, but it wasn't yet clear who would be there, or when the meetings would take place.

The sparks that set off these protests in the capital were corruption, poverty and rising prices -- including a $200 hike in electricity bills, reports Roth.

Over the past two years, Kyrgyz authorities have clamped down on free media, and opposition activists say they have routinely been subjected to physical intimidation and targeted by politically motivated criminal investigations.

Many of the opposition leaders once were allies of Bakiyev, in some cases former ministers or diplomats.