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COLOMBO (Reuters) - Several thousand protesters demonstrated in the Maldives on Friday calling for political reform, in a rare show of dissent in the tiny island nation famed for its palm-fringed beach resorts.

The government called the gathering illegal but vowed to peacefully resolve a protest threatening the strict control President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving leader, exerts over the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Gayoom announced reforms in June that sought to address his country's poor human rights record just months after a riot threw a spotlight on simmering unrest, but activists said he had yet to make good on promises of democratization.

"The crowd is still there. It thinned a little from last night, and now there are more since the end of Friday prayers," said Ibrahim Ismail, a member of parliament who has been active in the reform movement. He estimated the crowd at about 3,000. Friday is a holiday in the Muslim-majority nation.

He said the protest began when a group gathered outside a police station in the capital, Male, late on Thursday calling for the release of five reformists detained in the past week.

During the night the crowd swelled to several thousand, and although the five were released, the crowd refused to disperse. Paramilitary troops were watching the protest but had made no move to break it up.

"Gradually, the crowd got angrier and angrier and they started making demands for the immediate resignation of members of cabinet and the police. It just took on a life of its own," Ismail told Reuters.

Government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed said members of the crowd had stabbed two police officers, one of whom was seriously wounded. Ismail said only one had been stabbed, by someone planted in the crowd to try to incite violence.

"The concern is that law and order is upheld. The police are determined to resolve this peacefully," Shaheed said, but he added the government considered the protest unlawful.

"According to law, any gathering in which violence is committed is an illegal gathering," he said.

Shaheed said it was difficult for the government to deal with the demonstrators' demands since he said there were a number of different groups assembled, with no coherent agenda.    Continued ...

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