Woodland Daily Democrat - Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -- Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany vowed Tuesday to stay in office after rioters angered by his admission of lying about the economy stormed the headquarters of Hungarian state television and briefly forced it off the air.

Officials said about 150 people were injured in the violence, including 102 police officers, one of whom suffered a serious head injury.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gyurcsany defiantly refused to resign as protesters have demanded, vowing to carry out reform measures that will nurse the economy back to health.

Gyurcsany also condemned the "vandalism" of the 2,000 to 3,000 protesters who stormed the TV building, but said he had complete confidence in the police's ability to restore order.

He called it "the longest and darkest night" for Hungary since the fall of communism.

"I'm staying and I'm doing my job. I'm extremely committed to fulfilling my program, fiscal adjustments and reforms," he said. "I know it's very difficult for the people, but it's the only direction for Hungary."

Several thousand police reinforcements retook the television headquarters early Tuesday after hours of violent clashes with protesters demanding that Gyurcsany step down for lying about the economy to win April elections.

"They broke through the barricade and started to go in and break everything that they could find. They started looting and taking everything they could," Balazs Bende, an editor at state broadcaster Magyar Televizio, said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Buy AP Photo Reprints

He said the violence forced the station to cancel all programming and temporarily go off the air early Tuesday. The management safely escorted workers from the building, he said.

By daylight Tuesday, police controlled the area around the TV building, which also includes the National Bank of Hungary and the U.S. Embassy, and broadcasting resumed.

Several thousand protesters later gathered at Kossuth Square outside the parliament building, where they have massed since Sunday to demand Gyurcsany's resignation. The crowd - calm, but expectant - began to grow as people left work, and protesters said more people were on their way from outside the capital.

The protests were triggered by a recording that surfaced Sunday on which Gyurcsany admitted lying "morning, evening and night" about the economy during the campaign. He has not denied making the statement.

The outpouring of rage may be linked to austerity measures Gyurcsany's Socialist-led coalition has implemented in order to rein in a state budget deficit expected to surpass 10 percent of gross domestic product this year - the largest in the European Union.

The government has raised taxes and announced plans to lay off scores of state employees, introduce direct fees in the health sector and start charging tuition for most university students.

Until the scandal suddenly broke this weekend, the 45-year-old Gyurcsany had been the Socialist Party's golden boy - a youthful, charismatic leader promising to lead his nation to the prosperity as a full EU member.

His coalition with the Alliance of Free Democrats in April became the first Hungarian government to win re-election since the return to democracy in 1990.

"The parties behind the government have given (my program) full support ... and we have to go ahead," Gyurcsany told the AP.

"In Hungary, we have not witnessed these kinds of protests in the last 15-20 years, but just because 2,000 or 3,000 people don't understand what they can and cannot do, it's not a right to disturb the peace of the country," he said.

"I'm absolutely sure that the Hungarian police will be able to handle the situation and ensure security and restore calm."

Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei, who also oversees the police force, submitted his resignation because of the outbreak of violence, but his offer was rejected by Gyurcsany.

The violence started Monday night after several hundred people broke away from the protest outside parliament and marched over to the nearby TV building, demanding to deliver a statement in a live broadcast.

While most of demonstrators watched, a few dozen broke through police lines and into the building. Police tried to disperse them with water cannon sprays but the truck was quickly disabled by the rioters, some of whom escorted the police officers operating the vehicle to safety.

Several cars near the TV building were set on fire, their flames scorching the building.

Rioters also vandalized a large obelisk commemorating Soviet soldiers who were killed driving Nazi forces from Hungary at the end of World War II.

In the recording leaked Sunday to local media, Gyurcsany could be heard admitting that his government coalition, the first in post-communist Hungary to win re-election, had lied about the economy - keeping it afloat through "hundreds of tricks" and thanks to "divine providence."

Gyurcsany's comments - made in May to the Socialists' group of parliamentary deputies - were full of crude remarks.

"We screwed up. Not a little, a lot," Gyurcsany was heard saying. "No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have."

"I almost died when for a year and a half we had to pretend we were governing. Instead, we lied morning, evening and night," he told his fellow Socialists.

President Laszlo Solyom asked Gyurcsany to publicly recognize his error, saying the news of the remarks had thrown the country into a "moral crisis." He also chastised the prime minister for "knowingly" jeopardizing people's faith in democracy.

Gyurcsany defended himself by saying that was he trying to convince his party about the urgent and inevitable need for comprehensive reforms and to change the political culture.

Purchase this AP story for reprint.