Duizenden protesteren na leugens Hongaarse premier (en)

Thousands of protesters have clashed with police and stormed the headquarters of Hungary's state television, furious over a leaked recording in which the country's prime minister admitted that the government "lied morning, evening and night" about the economy to win the election in April.

The protests started Monday night outside the Hungarian parliament and moved on to the offices of the state television, MTV, later that night.

The turmoil began after state radio on Sunday (17 September) aired an audiotape of prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany telling members of his ruling Socialist Party that his government had lied about the state of the country's economy throughout its two years in office.

"We lied throughout the past one and a half or two years," he said according to CNN. "We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening and also at night."

On the tape, he also said the government had fudged economic policy "not a little bit, but very much. None of the other European countries have done such stupid things that we did."

The tape was made at a closed-door meeting in late May, weeks after Mr Gyurcsany's government became the first in post-communist Hungary to be re-elected.

Mr Gyurcsany has promised to raise taxes and put Hungary's huge budget deficit - the biggest in the EU - at 10.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) - back on a sustainable path.

The bloc's stability pact, the rules underpinning the euro, say that member states may not have a deficit of more than 3 percent of GDP.

In late August, the centre-left Hungarian government put forward a plan to cut the country's budget deficit from this year's expected 10.1% to to 3.2% of GDP in 2009, the highest such shortfall in the EU.

The European Commission gave a cautious approval of the draft plan and is expected to formally evaluate it by early October.