Georgian and UN officials negotiated with gunmen holding four United Nations observers yesterday as troops surrounded the remote farmhouse where the hostage-takers were holding out. "As far as we know, all the hostages are alive. We hope that the problem will be solved very soon," Mr Peter Hodel, a regional deputy commander of a UN mission in Georgia's separatist province of Abkhazia, said.
The four UN staff - two Uruguayans, a Czech and a Swede - are military observers on the Abkhazia mission. Hundreds of Georgian soldiers surrounded the farmhouse near Dzhikhashkari, in the west of the former Soviet republic.
"Talks are going on but the situation for the moment has not changed," Mr Hodel said. "The representatives of the Georgian government are holding the negotiations and we are only involved as observers."
Officials denied an earlier Georgian television report that three members of a family living in the farmhouse and also being held captive had been released.
They also dismissed local media reports that an elderly woman living in the house had died, adding that she was in a state of shock.
The gunmen, avowing support for late president, Mr Zviad Gamsakhurdia, are demanding the release of suspects arrested after last week's assassination attempt of his rival and successor, Mr Eduard Shevardnadze.
They also want the withdrawal of all Russian troops including peacekeepers serving in the breakaway province of Abkhazia from Georgian soil.
Mr Shevardnadze said yesterday the hostage-taking marked a continuation of terrorist acts directed against him and promised the gunmen would be defeated.
"Nobody can prevent the building of an independent Georgia," the 70-year-old former Soviet foreign minister said during an awards ceremony in the capital Tbilisi.
Mr Shevardnadze's spokesman, Mr Vakhtang Abashidze, told reporters in Tbilisi last night that all troops in the small, mountainous country were on a state of alert.
He said they had been ordered to open fire without warning in the event of any terrorist acts. "The situation in the country is quite difficult," Mr Abashidze said. He said a second attempt on Mr Shevardnadze's life could not be ruled out.
Mr Shevardnadze was unharmed in last week's attack but two bodyguards and one of the attackers died in the late-night assault on his motorcade.
Mr Shevardnadze came to power after Mr Gamsakhurdia, Georgia's first elected leader, was ousted in January 1992. Mr Gamsakhurdia died in mysterious circumstances in 1993.
Mr Levan Alexidze, a senior aide to Mr Shevardnadze, said the hostage-taking was well planned and he suggested that Russian peacekeepers in the area were either informed about the attack or were directly behind it.
"One may judge about this from the actions of the Russian peacekeepers, who had in fact allowed the terrorists to carry out their plan," Mr Alexidze said.
In a bizarre twist, a maverick field commander from Russia's breakaway region of Chechnya, Mr Salman Raduyev, who claimed responsibility for the attack on Mr Shevardnadze, said he was ready to offer his services to free the hostages.
But Georgian officials rejected his offer, saying they could handle the problem.