TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – Shaken Georgian leaders urged calm after Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found dead in a friend’s apartment, a blow to President Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambitious pledges to wipe out corruption and resolve two simmering separatist conflicts.

Parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, a key ally of Saakashvili and Zhvania, cut short a private visit to Italy and returned to Georgia on Friday calling for the government to not lose momentum despite the country’s “big loss.”

Zhvania, 41, was found dead early Thursday at a friend’s home, apparently poisoned by carbon monoxide from a gas-fired heating stove. Initial tests showed Zhvania’s blood had nearly double the fatal level of carbon monoxide, a forensics service spokeswoman said. His host also died.

Authorities called the moderate politician’s death an accident, but many people in Georgia – plagued by a history of political intrigue, conflicts with breakaway regions and tense relations with Russia – were skeptical. One lawmaker linked Zhvania’s death and a car bombing Tuesday near separatist South Ossetia and hinted at Russian involvement.

Hundreds of people gathered Thursday outside the home of Zhvania’s mother in central Tbilisi to watch the delivery of a brown wooden coffin. Zhvania’s body will be moved to the capital’s Holy Trinity Cathedral for public viewing Saturday before Sunday’s funeral.

A visibly shaken Saakashvili lit candles in Zhvania’s honor at the cathedral and urged Georgians to remain calm.

“I assume control over the executive branch and I call on members of the Cabinet to return to work and to continue their work as normal,” said Saakashvili, who appointed Zhvania after his election in January 2004 – rewarding a key ally in the November 2003 protests against election fraud that became known as the “Rose Revolution.”

Zhvania was considered a moderate in the government of the fiery Saakashvili, and he worked to overcome endemic corruption that had enriched some officials during the era of ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze while the economy deteriorated.

Deputy Prosecutor General Georgy Dzhanashia said the gas-fired heater in the apartment where Zhvania was found was installed “with serious technical violations … there was no ventilation in the apartment.” In his grim-faced announcement of the death, Merabishvili called it an accident.

Many people rely on gas or wood stoves in their homes in Georgia, where central heating is scarce, and fatal leaks and accidents are common. But several Tbilisi residents said they believed the prime minister’s death was suspicious.

Authorities “have removed Zhvania from the political scene and have cleared the way … for themselves,” said Kote Dgebuadze, a 55-year-old engineer.

“There were plenty of people who envied Zurab, many were hoping that a conflict would break out between him and the president,” said historian Grigory Dardzhanian.

Georgian lawmaker Alexander Shalamberidze linked Zhvania’s death to a car bombing that killed three policemen in Gori, the city nearest to South Ossetia, earlier this week. Shalamberidze pointed the finger at “outside forces” in remarks clearly aimed at Russia, which has ties with the separatist Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Zhvania, a moderate, was a key figure in efforts to resolve the conflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from the central government after wars in the 1990s. Saakashvili has vowed to reunite his fractured country, but tension is high and erupted into deadly fighting in South Ossetia last summer.

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