Georgians vow to regain Abkhazia

War is brewing in the tiny Black Sea republic of Abkhazia with an army of rebels advancing on Sukhumi, the capital, to restore the breakaway region to Georgian rule.

Russian news reports suggested on Friday that as many as 500 rebels, including Chechen guerrillas and Georgian irregulars, had attacked Russian peace-keeping troops and Abkhazian positions from their bases in the rugged Kodori gorge, which straddles the unrecognised Abkhazian republic's border with Georgia.

Most experts believe Georgia is sponsoring the armed attempt to seize back Abkhazia, a subtropical Black Sea region of snow-peaked mountains and luxury beach resorts, which won its de facto independence ­ with Russian backing ­ in the bitter civil war of 1992 to 1993. Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgia's President, has denied involvement in the insurrection but he told a crowd of demonstrators in the country's capital, Tbilisi, this week: "I am sure we will return to Abkhazia, and it will happen soon."

Georgia officially demanded yesterday that Russia withdraw within three months the 1,600 peace-keeping troops it has maintained in Abkhazia since 1993. The Georgian parliament voted overwhelmingly this week to remove Russian forces immediately. Georgia also said it would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the post-Soviet organisation that brokered the deal in 1993 under which Russian troops entered Abkhazia.

Kakha Sikharulidze, a Georgian government spokesman, told Russian television that the peace-keepers no longer had a mandate and must be withdrawn. Moscow insists the force is the only thing preventing mass bloodshed. Russian security is at stake. Abkhazia was once the Soviet Union's most popular holiday spot. In recent years, Russians have been returning in growing numbers to enjoy its inexpensive, Mediterranean-style beach resorts.

On Monday, a United Nations helicopter was shot down on a routine inspection of the Kodori gorge, killing all nine UN observers on board. The next day, unmarked fighter-bomber jets attacked three villages in the same area. Abkhazia and Russia claim they were Georgian aircraft providing tactical air support to the insurgents. Georgia says the aircraft were Russian.

Some 250,000 Christian Georgians expelled after the mainly Muslim Abkhazians' victory have been a constant source of pressure on Mr Shevardnadze since 1993. Most insurgents marching on Sukhumi are thought to be from this group. Mr Shevardnadze accuses Moscow of using Abkhazian separatism to keep Georgia weak, divided and under Russian influence.

Some analysts agree Russia might be trying to twist the arm of Mr Shevardnadze over his wish to move into Western Europe's orbit and even join Nato.

The presence of Chechen rebelscould be another complicating factor. Moscow accuses Georgia of harbouring fighters from the breakaway Russian region in the remote Pankisi gorge, near Georgia's border with Chechnya. Some Russian experts say the Chechens could be mercenaries fighting for Georgia. But others fear they may be hoping to slip over the border into Russia to commit terrorist acts.

Sergei Ivanov, Russia's Defence Minister, said either the Georgian government had lost control over its own territory, or it was manipulating Chechen terrorists to its own ends. This week Moscow sent thousands of troops to the area, to bolster its long frontier with Abkhazia.

¿ The chief of the commission investigating the crash of a Russian airliner last week over the Black Sea said yesterday that the aircraft had been hit by an anti-aircraft missile, and a Ukrainian investigator also suggested his country's forces could have been responsible.

The Tu-154 airliner went down on Thursday last week near the Russian city of Sochi. All 78 people on board, most of them Russian migrants to Israel, were killed in the crash.