BUJUMBURA, Burundi (CNN) -- Opposition parties in Burundi were reportedly trying to appoint a new president Wednesday to replace Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, who was seeking refuge at the U.S. embassy in the capital, Bujumbura.

Military leaders denied reports that there was an attempted coup against Ntibantunganya, a Hutu. He was escorted to the U.S. ambassador's residence after Tutsi paratroopers were posted at main government positions, including the TV and radio station in the capital.

A diplomatic source in Bujumbura, Burundi told CNN that if a coup is taking place in the country "it is not a bloody coup" and to say it is a coup "puts more of a spin on it than it warrants."

"The president feared for his life and his own security forces were not responding to his requests," said Mames Bansubibko, a close adviser to the president. "He is staying with the U.S. ambassador to make sure he is not going to be killed."

In Washington, however, an administration official said the military was attempting to depose Ntibantunganya and he was expected to flee to Tanzania.

"The United States will not, under any circumstances, tolerate a government installed by force or intimidation in Burundi," U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

Bansubibko said the president was not resigning. But diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely Ntibantunganya would remain in power.

Judith Mudd Kaula, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy, said Ntibantunganya has been under guard at the ambassador's residence since Tuesday. She described the situation as "temporary," but did not elaborate.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Longin Minani said Ntibantunganya "is still our commander-in-chief and our president."

Ntibantunganya, 40, was pelted with stones and cow dung Tuesday as he arrived for a funeral for 340 Tutsis, mostly women and children, massacred Saturday by Hutu rebels in Bugendena, in central Burundi.

Earlier Wednesday, the junior partner in the coalition government rejected both Ntibantunganya and the 1994 agreement setting up the current government, a weak coalition of the two ethnic groups.

"The presidency of Sylvestre Ntibantunganya is a total failure. Instead of being the president of the country, he is the head of the Hutu ethnic group," Charles Mukasi, the president of the Tutsi-dominated UPRONA party, said at a news conference in Bujumbura.

"He is guilty of high treason and must be toppled."

Mukasi, also a Hutu, said the party's decision to renounce the 1994 pact technically dissolves the government.

"We are speaking to others to build a new government and elect a new president," Mukasi said. "The process will start today in order to bring peace and security to Burundi so that violence can end."

The agreement followed the October 1993 assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected Hutu president, Melchoir Ndadaye, which threatened to plunge the tiny nation into chaos. Widespread violence followed, and thousands of people, mainly Tutsis, were killed by Hutus.

Still, the convention kept a government in place.

Ntibantunganya has been president since April 12, 1994, six days after the death of Cyprien Ntaryamira in a mysterious plane crash with the Rwandan president. He knows the horrors of ethnic hatred firsthand. His wife was killed in 1993 by rebel troops who had come to arrest him.

UPRONA's rejection of Ntibantunganya as president today was the third time the party has tried to change the September 1994 agreement that it and 11 other parties agreed to.

Previously, UPRONA succeeded in removing the Hutu speaker of the National Assembly -- who would have been in line for the presidency -- and in obtaining the resignation of the Tutsi prime minister, who ignored their directives.

Leonce Sinzikayo, speaker of the national assembly and a leader of the Hutu-led FRODEBU party, did not condemn UPRONA's decision Wednesday, but he urged all parties to participate in negotiations to prevent a military takeover.

Both the Tutsi-dominated army and Tutsi political parties strongly have criticized a call by Ntibantunganya and Tutsi Prime Minister Antoine Nduwayo for foreign military help to restore security.

Many Tutsis say the plan is a plot by the president to destroy the Burundi military and expose Tutsis to a genocide similar to that which erupted in Rwanda two years ago, leaving half a million people dead.

Clashes involving the Tutsi-dominated army and Hutu rebels have intensified this year, and human rights observers say both sides routinely kill civilians.

More than 150,000 people have been killed since Ndadaye's murder.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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