Georgian security forces used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against protesters outside parliament late on Tuesday, sharply escalating a crackdown after lawmakers debated a "foreign agents" bill which is viewed by the opposition and Western nations as authoritarian and Russian-inspired.

Eyewitnesses said they saw some police officers physically attack protesters, who threw eggs and bottles at them, before using tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades to force demonstrators from the area outside the parliament building.

Levan Khabeishvili, the leader of Georgia's largest opposition party, the United National Movement, posted a picture on X with his face bloodied and sporting a black eye. A party official said Khabeishvili was beaten by police after disappearing from central Tbilisi.

After being dispersed from parliament, around two thousand protesters continued to block Tbilisi's main Rustaveli Avenue, barricading it with cafe tables and rubbish bins. Some shouted "Slaves" and "Russians" at police.

Earlier, riot police used pepper spray and batons to clear some protesters who were trying to prevent lawmakers from leaving the back entrance of parliament.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said in a post on X the crackdown had been "totally unwarranted, unprovoked and out of proportion," and that the protests had been peaceful.

The bill has heightened divisions in the southern Caucasus country, setting the ruling Georgian Dream party against a protest movement backed by opposition groups, civil society, celebrities and the figurehead president.

Parliament, which is controlled by the Georgian Dream and its allies, is likely to approve the bill, which must pass two more readings before becoming law. Lawmakers ended Tuesday's session without a vote and the debate will resume on Wednesday.

On Monday, a government-organised rally in support of the bill was attended by tens of thousands of people.

At that rally, former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who founded Georgian Dream, told attendees that a "global party of war" had hijacked the EU and Nato and that it was bent on using those institutions to undermine Georgian sovereignty.

The bill would require organisations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents". Georgian critics have labelled the bill "the Russian law", comparing it to Moscow's "foreign agent" legislation, which has been used to crack down on dissent there. (Reuters)