COLOMBO, Aug 13: The Maldives declared a state of emergency on Friday after using teargas and truncheons to break up thousands of demonstrators making an unprecedented call for political reform in the tiny resort island nation.

Government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed said paramilitary forces moved in on the crowds after they torched a government building and tried to charge a police station and that minimal force was used, but activists said the break-up was violent.

"It's over. The NSS (National Security Service) came and chased the people using tear gas and riot gear," said a resident of the capital Male. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving leader, 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 in the nation famed for its palm-fringed beach resorts.

But activists said Gayoom had yet to make good on promises of democratisation and took to a square in the capital, Male, on Thursday night to demand 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 through most of Friday until government forces moved in to break up the demonstrators.

A report on the dissident Maldives Culture Web site said police had beaten protesters and arrested a number of reformists, and that police agents in the crowd had incited the violence as an excuse the break up the demonstration.

"We were not looking at activists, we are looking at those inciting violence ... A minimal of force was used. I understand only one person was seriously injured and about three to four police have been injured," the spokesman said. Ibrahim Ismail, a reformist member of parliament, said the protesters wanted to see some sign Gayoom was sincere about his reform pledges. -Reuters