By Christian Lowe MOSCOW, June 4 (Reuters) - Powerful figures in Georgia's leadership are seriously considering a military campaign against the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia, an influential think-tank said on Wednesday. In a report released hours before European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visits Georgia for talks on Abkhazia, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said Tbilisi shared the blame for a sharp escalation in tensions this year. Western diplomats say the conflict over Abkhazia, simmering since the Black Sea region threw off Georgian rule in a 1990s war, has in the past few months come close to spilling over into new bloodshed. Georgia's Western allies have largely blamed Moscow for triggering the tension with a series of moves to intensify Russian support for the separatists. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has repeatedly denied any intention of using force to resolve the row, and has said he is committed to a negotiated solution. The ICG report said this was not the full picture. "Hawks in Tbilisi are seriously considering a military option," said the report, which drew on interviews with diplomats and officials in the region. "A number of powerful advisers and structures around President Saakashvili appear increasingly convinced a military operation in Abkhazia is feasible and necessary." "There are strong feelings in Tbilisi that something must be done to change a status quo in which Russia challenges the country's sovereignty with virtual impunity," it said. The report said Georgia has been building up its forces at its Senaki military base near Abkhazia and establishing military infra-structure in the Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia under Tbilisi's control. Georgia denies making military preparations for an attack. "Both sides need to recognise the risks in current policies, cool their rhetoric and cease military preparations," said the report by the ICG, which is led by former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. "The U.S. and European Union should be firm and united in cautioning both Moscow and Tbilisi against military adventures." The rise in tension this year was triggered when Russia established semi-official ties with the separatists, citing humanitarian concerns, and sent in additional troops to counter what Moscow said was an imminent Georgian attack. Tbilisi accused Russia of annexing Abkhazia. A United Nations report said last month a Russian air force jet had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over the region, though Moscow denied involvement. Georgian officials and Western diplomats say Moscow's policy is driven by a desire to avenge Kosovo's independence from Serbia, which Moscow opposed, and to punish Tbilisi for seeking to join NATO.
A protester holds a picture of Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Russia during a demonstration in Moscow May 31, 2008, marking the third anniversary of the date when Khodorkovsky was sentenced. The former ...
