Mongolians angry over parliament?s dissolution of the coalition government began converging on the snow-covered main square in the capital yesterday. Below-freezing temperatures kept the city quiet over the weekend, but protesters were expected to take to the streets to coincide with the first reconvening of parliament after the controversial vote just passed late on Friday, activists said.

The mineral-rich country plunged into political crisis last week when more than half the members of its cabinet, all from the Mongolian People?s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), resigned, signalling the party?s withdrawal from the coalition government of Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, of the Democratic party. ?The recent political decision of the MPRP to topple the grand coalition government has immediately created a dangerous situation in our country,? Elbegdorj told Reuters.

A few dozen protesters gathered on Ulan Bator?s Sukhbaatar Square, a vast expanse of concrete typical of a once communist capital, as police took up position nearby. They unfurled a large national flag and hung it in front of parliament. The MPRP, which ran Mongolia as a Soviet satellite for much of the 20th century, said last week it wanted to form a new government with other parties, citing a decline in economic growth and rise in inflation. Elbegdorj said the MPRP may have wanted to derail his government?s probes into ?deep? official corruption.

Power shifts are not new in this country, locked between China and Russia, where most of the population are herders. Four governments were formed in four years the last time the Democrats were in power, between 1996 and 2000. But the dissolving of Elbegdorj?s government represented a stark threat to democracy in Mongolia, which for years has been among the most stable states in Central Asia, said Steve Noerper, a professor at New York University.

?Mongolia may see a period of political turbulence that could lay waste to a majority ? some suggest the entirety ? of its democratic gains,? Noerper, a former Asia Foundation representative in Ulan Bator, said in a statement. Elbegdorj, who will stay in office in an interim capacity, said he would not fight parliament?s decision. President George W. Bush visited in November, praising the country as a model of democracy in the region and thanking the government for its support in the Iraq war. Mongolia has sent about 120 soldiers to Iraq.

<B>Eve Johnson</B>