President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, returning home from medical treatment in Russia last weekend, was outraged to find that food prices had been freed by his cabinet in his absence and immediately ordered them lowered again, a spokesman for the prime minister said Monday.


Lukashenko made a dramatic television address Friday night blaming the government and in particular Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir for "a totally unjustified rise in retail prices by 50 to 200 percent during the 10 days of the president's absence," news agencies reported.


Sergei Dubovik, spokesman for the prime minister, said that after an emergency cabinet meeting Saturday Lukashenko issued a decree Sunday ordering prices to be reduced to their Nov. 1 levels and for a compensation package to protect the population.


"The decree says price rises must be linked with social protection for the population," Dubovik said, adding that a compensation package would be worked out and introduced "in the next weeks."


Dubovik admitted there was a difference of opinion between the pro-reform prime minister, who advocated the freeing-up of prices, and the president. But the president's aim was not to reduce the prices so much as to ensure protection for the population, Dubovik said.


In his address Lukashenko also hit out at the Belarus Supreme Soviet which last week appealed to the Consitutional Court to suspend presidential amendments to laws on self-government for the regions.


Lukashenko said there were in the Supreme Soviet "anti-presidential forces trying to block decisions of the president and sparing no effort to discredit him in the public eye," Interfax reported.


Speaking of "an extremely aggravated political situation," Lukashenko vowed to take personal control of Belarus's security forces. "Tomorrow the Interior Ministry and KGB will be placed under my control, subject to my decisions. I will give two days for reflection. Then those who are guilty will be removed and arrested," he said, according to Reuters.


He blamed Chigir and National Bank chairman Stanislav Bogdankevich for failing to stabilize the Belarussian ruble and keep prices in check, and showing "contempt for their people and head of state," Interfax reported.


"Those people in the presidential administration and the government who disagree with my actions can simply resign. No one has the right to violate the presidents's decrees," he said, according to Reuters.


He also lashed out at national television and demanded that transmissions of parliamentary sessions be stopped and that all media "adopt a constructive position" toward the presidency.


Lukashenko, a flamboyant former army commissar and collective-farm director, returned home Friday after a 10-day stay at the Russian resort of Sochi where he was being treated for a bad back.


His unannounced absence caused rumors to circulate last week after television reports said the Supreme Soviet wished to consult him but could not establish his whereabouts.