GEORGIA: Russia last night warned Georgia not to invade a breakaway republic after it massed troops along the disputed border.
The warning came as Georgia deployed armoured vehicles, artillery and combat troops at the head of the remote Kodori Gorge that leads into the heart of its Abkhazia region.
Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in a civil war in 1992 and has resisted efforts by Tblisi since then to reunite the country.
"We are carefully monitoring events. We call on Georgia to restrain from armed action that could incite new conflict in the region," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Russian troops act as peacekeepers along the line of confrontation between the two sides, and their deputy commander warned Georgia against an attack. One Russian commander in the region, Lt Gen Valery Yevnevich, warned of "unpredictable consequences" if Georgian troops crossed the line of confrontation.
The troop build-up comes days after Russia warned Georgia not to attack a second rebel region, South Ossetia, after a pair of bombings over the weekend.
Abkhaz president Sergei Bagapsh said: "If the Georgian forces try to cross the line of the checkpoints of the Russian peacekeepers, then our units will take the required actions."
The military build-up comes amid rising tension in the region, with Georgia accusing Russia of siding with the Abkhaz rebels.
Georgia's parliament last week demanded that Russian troops leave the enclave, and South Ossetia, calling for both to return to Georgian control.
Last weekend Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, snubbed a meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States held in Moscow, apparently after failing to get a private meeting agreed with president Vladimir Putin. He has long accused Russia of financing the breakaway governments. President Saakashvili then reconfirmed the cabinet post of the hardline defence minister Irakly Okruashvili, who has called for the enclaves to be brought back under government control.
The gorge is officially under Georgian control, but the leader of the mountain tribe who live there, Emzar Kvitsiani, insists he is independent and has sided with the separatists.
On Sunday, Mr Kvitsiani claimed Tblisi was preparing to attack and warned that his militia would defend the gorge. Later he toned down his comments, amid speculation that his lightly-armed militia would be wiped out in any clash with Georgian troops.
On Monday, Georgia stepped up the pressure, with Mr Saakashvili announcing: "The only thing we can discuss with such people, after they lay down their arms, will be which cells they occupy in prison."