Turkish protesters said Thursday they would remain in Istanbul's Gezi Park despite a "last warning" by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to evacuate the green patch at the center of deadly anti-government unrest.

"We will stay in Gezi Park with all our demands and sleeping bags," Taksim Solidarity, the core group behind the campaign to save the park, said in a statement, rejecting the government's proposal to hold a referendum on the site's controversial redevelopment.

An uneasy calm returned to Istanbul's protest square early Wednesday after running clashes between riot police and protesters, as Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed zero tolerance for the mass demos.

Hours earlier, Taksim Square had resembled a battle scene, swathed in acrid smoke as police dispersed tens of thousands of protesters chanting "Erdogan, resign!" and "Resistance!" on the worst night of violence in 12 days of nationwide unrest.

Riot police re-entered Istanbul's protest square Tuesday, sending demonstrators scrambling with tear gas and water cannon in a fresh escalation of unrest after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would meet with protest leaders.

Hundreds of police officers backed by armored cars moved in on Taksim Square in the early morning in their first return to the site after pulling out on June 1, saying they wanted to remove makeshift barricades erected by protesters and clear the area of flags and banners.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday will meet with protest leaders whose mass anti-government demonstrations, now in their 11th day, have rocked the country, his deputy said.

"Our prime minister has given an appointment to some of the groups leading these protests.... They will be briefed on the facts and our prime minister will listen to their thoughts," deputy premier Bulent Arinc said Monday, as fresh protests raged in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities.

The pro-secular protests rocking Turkish cities have sent ripples across the Arab world, unnerving Islamist leaders who have long touted Turkey as a successful model of political Islam, analysts say.

Thousands of Turks have joined in mass anti-government demonstrations, defying Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to end the worst civil unrest of his decade-long rule.

Thousands of angry Turks took to the streets on Saturday to join mass anti-government protests, defying Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to end the worst civil unrest of his decade-long rule.

From the early morning, protesters began arriving in Istanbul's Taksim Square with food and blankets to settle in for a weekend of demonstrations, adding to the growing tent city in nearby Gezi Park.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday his Islamic-rooted government opposed violence and was open to "democratic demands" raised by demonstrators whose mass protests have rocked the country.

"What we are against is terrorism, violence, vandalism and actions that threaten others for the sake of freedoms," Erdogan said in a televised conference in Istanbul. "I'm open-hearted to anyone with democratic demands."

A top U.S. official urged Turkish leaders Thursday to refrain from "unhelpful comments" after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused "terrorists" of stoking days of anti-government protests.

"We remain supportive... of peaceful protest and of freedom of speech that individuals are asserting in the country," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an immediate end to mass protests against his rule Friday, but urged supporters to "go home" after they staged a major show of strength welcoming him back from an overseas trip.

Waving Turkish flags and chanting "We will die for you, Erdogan" and "Let us go crush them all", supporters of the premier's Justice and Development Party (AKP) displayed their support after keeping largely silent during seven days of violent anti-government demonstrations across the country.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that members of a "terrorist organization" were taking part in deadly anti-government protests sweeping Turkey and refused to cancel a controversial development plan that sparked them.

"Among the protesters, there are extremists, some of them implicated in terrorism," Erdogan told reporters in Tunis on the final day of a north African tour that has been overshadowed by the unrest back home.