Russia, Georgia row over fresh airspace violation claims (Roundup)

Aug 25, 2007, 12:32 GMT

Moscow - Moscow has rejected fresh accusations from Georgia that Russian planes violated its airspace, news reports said Saturday.

According to the Interior Ministry in Tbilisi, Russian aircraft entered Georgian airspace on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last, news agency Interfax reported.

Georgian police fired on one of the aircraft, it was claimed, causing it to crash on the border with the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

A spokesman for the Russian Air Force rejected the claims, saying there were no Russian planes in the area at the time the incident is believed to have taken place, according to news agency Itar-Tass.

The Georgian interior ministry sent an investigation commission to the area Saturday and urged Russia to allow an independent international probe.

Residents had reported the crash Friday to Georgia's Rustavi2 television.

Bad weather meant that the suspected crash site in Kodori valley could not be reached, but a fire could be seen in the valley which is split between Georgian and Abkhazian control according to a ceasefire agreement in the civil war between the two sides.

Earlier this week, Georgia accused neighbouring Russia of violating its airspace in the same region near the Abkhazian border.

Tbilisi accused Moscow on Tuesday of flying a craft at 490 kilometres per hour at 4,000 metres over Georgian airspace for the second time this month.

The two sides have been sparring for weeks over an anti-radar missile that hit near the breakaway region of South Ossetia on August 6.