MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Russia rejected on Wednesday a Georgian demand it replace the Russian commander of a peacekeeping force in its breakaway region of Abkhazia and blamed Georgia for tensions in the area. President Mikhail Saakashvili demanded the sacking of General Sergei Chaban after his soldiers briefly detained Georgian servicemen on Tuesday. Abkhazia is a serious source of friction between Georgia and its former imperial master. The peacekeepers say the Georgians were detained after threatening them with weapons in a security zone they patrol between Abkhazia and Georgia proper. Tbilisi says the Russians raided the Georgian territory and seized its soldiers. The Russian deputy Ground Force commander, General Valery Yevnevich, told Interfax news agency Chaban could be replaced only by the leaders of the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States, who had authorised his appointment. "Until such a decision is made, the current commander Sergei Chaban will go on carrying out his duties," Yevnevich said. "The peacekeeping force carries out an extremely important task not to allow the renewal of a military conflict and they cannot be left without a command," he added. Russia sent peacekeepers to Abkhazia in 1993 after a bloody war in which Tbilisi lost control over the Black Sea province. Disagreements over Abkhazia and Georgia's other breakaway province of South Ossetia, where Russia also has a peacekeeping force, are the greatest irritant in strained bilateral ties. STRING OF CLASHES Georgia's pro-Western government accuses Moscow of standing behind separatists and demands that the Russian peacekeepers are replaced by a neutral international force. Russia rejects such demands, saying Tbilisi seeks to take back Abkhazia by force. The Tuesday incident was the latest in a string of clashes, which have become increasingly frequent since Saakashvili became president in 2004 and proclaimed a course towards Georgia's integration into NATO and the European Union. Georgia's parliament has also called for the Russian peacekeepers to withdraw but has not yet decided on what conditions. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin on Wednesday spoke by phone with Chaban and the peacekeepers' commander in South Ossetia Marat Kulakhmetov, the Foreign ministry said in a statement. "It was noted that restraint and calm are needed in the atmosphere of mounting provocations by the Georgian side, which are fraught with the destabilisation of situation along the Russian borders," the statement said. The statement said Chaban and Kulakhmentov informed the deputy minister that "their contingents act exclusively within the framework of their international mandate".
