Saakashvili pleads for EU support in spat with Russia

May 12, 2008, 17:19 GMT

Tbilisi/Moscow - EU ministers in Tbilisi on Monday reaffirmed support for Georgia's 'territorial integrity' amid fears that growing hostilities with Russian-backed separatists regions could lead to open conflict.

'The European Union reiterates its support for Georgia's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within the internationally recognized borders,' Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel, whose country currently chairs the EU presidency, was quoted by Itar-tass as saying Monday.

The foreign ministers of five European states - Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Slovenia - were in the Georgian capital Monday to probe into escalating tension between Moscow and Tbilisi over Russia's support for the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili pleaded for the EU and NATO's support against what it called Russia efforts to annex part of its territory since Moscow strengthened diplomatic and economic ties to the area last month.

Saakashvili said Europe had abandoned Georgia to the Soviet Union once in 1921 and he 'hoped that Europe will not for history to repeat itself in the same tragedy.'

'It is not only a question for Georgia, but for the future of Europe as well,' he said.

The United States and the EU have become increasingly embroiled in Georgia and Russia's dispute as the two found a platform in NATO in which to trade mutual accusations of troop increases.

Saakashvili warned Thursday that the situation was 'very close' to war, but assured EU leaders on Monday that he was intent on brokering a peaceful solution.

But the comments Monday was overshadowed as Abkhaz rebels claimed to have shot two more Georgian spy planes. The drones would be the sixth shot down over Abkhazia in recent weeks.

Tbilisi meanwhile denied that any of its spy planes had been shot down Monday.

The latest Russo-Georgian military accusations first exploded when Tbilisi attributed the loss of its first spy plane to the work of a Russian fighter jet.

Moscow denied involvement and said the flights broke UN a ceasefire that ended the civil war in 1994.

Relations have reached a standoff since Russia's subsequent declaration that it would increase peacekeeping troops in the region and was ready to intervene to protect Abkhaz citizen's, most of whom hold Russian passports.