(Edits, adds comments from Solana, Lavrov and Saakashvili) By Christian Lowe MOSCOW, April 29 (Reuters) - Russia on Tuesday despatched extra peacekeeping troops to Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region to counter what it said were Georgian plans for an attack, prompting the European Union to accuse it of stoking tensions. The mounting crisis between the two ex-Soviet neighbours has alarmed Georgia's allies in the West, who see the ex-Soviet state in the Caucasus as a future NATO ally and a vital energy transit route. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said after talks in Luxembourg with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the Russian deployment was unwise. "Even if the increase in peacekeepers is within limits -- if we want to diminish the perception of tensions, I don't think it is a wise measure to increase now," he told a news conference. Russia said the increase was within the limit of 3,000 troops set out in a 1994 ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations. But it angered Georgia, which accuses the Russian peacekeepers there of siding with the separatists. Officials in Moscow said they had been forced to act because they had evidence that Georgia was preparing its forces for an attack on Abkhazia, a Moscow-backed territory on the Black Sea that escaped Tbilisi's control in a war in the 1990s. Russia's Foreign Ministry said Georgia had massed 1,500 troops on Abkhazia's borders, leading it to conclude that "a bridgehead is being prepared for the start of military operations against Abkhazia". The Russian Defence Ministry said this had necessitated an increase in the Russian military peacekeeping contingent. ALLEGATION DENIED Georgia's pro-Western leadership -- which this month angered Moscow by winning an assurance from NATO that it could eventually join the alliance -- said it had no intention of attacking, and that its only forces near Abkhazia were police. "We think this step ... will utterly destabilise this region," Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told reporters after an emergency session of Georgia's security council. "We will consider the additional soldiers and arms as illegal and potential aggressors." In a televised address, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili described Russia as "a big power that wants to drag us into a global confrontation ... We do not want war". In Luxembourg, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov restated Moscow's position that it would use military force if Georgia attacked Abkhazia or the second Georgian separatist region, South Ossetia. "We would be forced to take retaliatory measures to protect the lives of our citizens," he said. The two regions -- where most residents hold Russian passports -- have been a flashpoint for years. Georgia accuses Russia of propping up the separatists to undermine its stability. The conflict escalated this month when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an intensification of ties with the separatists. The Kremlin said it was concerned for the welfare of residents, but Georgia called it a de facto annexation. Five days later, Georgia accused Russia of shooting down an unmanned Georgian drone over Abkhazia. Moscow denied involvement. Georgian negotiators this week said they were blocking Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation because of Russia's ties to the separatists.
People prepare George ribbons, symbol of Russia's military victories, before a protest held to commemorate the first anniversary of the movement of a statue of a Soviet soldier to a military ...
