Georgia, Russia tensions soar

Georgia said that Russians were trying to coerce witnesses to the dropping of a missile earlier this week to throw doubt on Russia's part in the incident, which has sorely tested relations between Moscow and Tbilisi.

President Mikhail Saakashvili, meanwhile, said his country was not seeking confrontation with Russia, but said no country should strengthen their security at the expense of Georgia's.

He said that Georgia would work swiftly to join Western organisations, like the European Union and NATO.

''The Georgian armed forces are able to repel any aggression. But we will do everything to avoid large-scale armed confrontation,'' he told a group of students on Friday.

''We should behave as a responsible partner for the United States and for the Euro-Atlantic bodies,'' he said.

Radar data

Georgia has said radar data proved Russian jets violated its airspace on Monday and fired a missile aimed at a Georgian radar.

The missile, which did not explode, landed close to a village in the northwestern Gori region near the breakaway province of South Ossetia, which is patrolled by peacekeepers.

Russian officials have vehemently denied the accusations, accusing Tbilisi of trying to provoke Moscow.

Shevardnadze speaks up

A day after the chairman of the UN Security Council signaled a reluctance to get the world body involved in the festering dispute, Eduard Shevardnadze weighed in, saying that when he was Georgia's president, Russian jets bombed Georgian forces during the wars in the 1990s when Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke from central government control.

''I won't be revealing any great secrets if I say that that such violations of Georgia's air space and bombings were common during my presidency. But Russian forces never acknowledged any of this,'' Shevardnadze said in an interview.

Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister who was president of Georgia until he was ousted in a popular uprising in 2003, said Georgian officials should ensure that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conducts an objective investigation.

He also dismissed efforts to involve the United Nations, because Russia would use its veto as a permanent member to thwart any real investigation or criticism.

''Therefore, I think that the OSCE here should be given the authority,'' he told AP.

Airspace violated

The OSCE said in a report released on Wednesday that its mission had confirmed that Georgian airspace was violated, but could not say how many and what kind of aircraft were involved.

The mission also said it could not identify the missile.

Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution David Bakradze told reporters that new eyewitness reports he said were gathered independently by Russian peacekeepers were part of a ''small spectacle'' and were a violation of the peacekeepers' mandate.

He said the peacekeepers ''used threats and pressure'' to persuade four elderly villagers not far from where the missile landed to give statements saying that they saw the aircraft flying from the southeast rather than from the north, where Russia is located.

Moreover, the village was outside of the conflict zone where the peacekeepers are restricted to under their mandate, he said.

''The Russian side is trying to turn this case around, as if there exists some ambiguity,'' he said.

The commander for Russian peacekeepers in the region did not answer repeated phone calls on Friday.

A three-sided peacekeeping force consisting of Russian Georgian troops and troops from the Russian region of North Ossetia have patrolled South Ossetia since the wars of the early 1990s.

On Thursday, the chairman of the Security Council said the council wanted to know the facts before it holds an emergency meeting on Georgia's claim.

Pascal Gayama, the Republic of Congo's diplomat who is the current council president, said he raised Georgia's request for an urgent meeting during closed consultations Thursday but members ''felt that there was a lack of adequate, accurate information.''

''We are looking ... to hear more about the facts,'' Gayama said. ''So before that, there is little we can do.''

Tbilisi has accused Moscow of trying to destabilise the country and of backing South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Saakashvili, whose efforts to integrate into the West have irked Moscow, has vowed to return the regions to central government control.