* Georgia halts spy flights but reserves right to restart * Russia calls on Georgia to end "policy of provocation" * EU and U.S. officials to visit region next week By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, May 30 (Reuters) - Georgia said on Friday it had stopped spy plane flights over breakaway Abkhazia as Western nations prepared a diplomatic drive to calm tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow that have raised fears of war. But Georgian U.N. Ambassador Irakli Alasania warned after addressing a Security Council meeting on the crisis that his country reserved its right to resume flights by pilotless drones if it saw a threat from Russian-backed Abkhazia. A Georgian drone was shot down over Abkhazia on April 20 by what a U.N. report said on Monday was a Russian fighter. Moscow has denied involvement. The report also said the Georgian reconnaissance flight violated a 1994 cease-fire agreement between Georgia and Abkhazia, a region on the Black Sea that is smaller than Cyprus and has fewer than 200,000 people. The conflict has sparked friction between Russia and the West, which supports Georgia's ambition to join NATO. The instability in the South Caucasus has also worried the West because the region is seen as a vital part of an energy corridor between Caspian Sea oil fields and world markets. "I openly said that since the (U.N.) report was issued, (the) Georgian side stopped overflights," Alasania told reporters. "It doesn't mean that we will not use these military capabilities if the threat will occur in the region." Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he was "quite encouraged" by the Georgian halt to overflights, although he regretted the warning of a possible resumption -- something he said Alasania had not mentioned at the council meeting. In the closed-door session, Churkin said he had called on Georgia "to stop its policy of provocation," pull back forces from the border with Abkhazia and sign an accord with the rebel region on abstention from force and return of refugees. The envoy referred back to Moscow's statements denying Russian involvement in the drone incident and said the U.N. report contained "technical inconsistencies and omissions" but he stopped short of explicitly denying it himself. Churkin said Russia "is prepared to conduct a thorough investigation of this matter," for which it would need all the materials collected by Georgia and the United Nations. Foreign experts could be involved in the probe, he added. The council adjourned its meeting without taking action. It is to hold another debate on Abkhazia in July. EU MISSION To try to calm tensions, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is due to visit Tbilisi and Abkhazia next week, while U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, Washington's point man for the area, will go to Moscow. As a first step, a delegation of ambassadors from EU member states traveled to the separatist capital, Sukhumi, on Friday. Abkhazia threw off Georgian rule after a war in the early 1990s and runs its own affairs, although no state has recognized its independence. Tbilisi has vowed to restore its control and bring back hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians who were driven out in the fighting. Tension has risen since Russia sent extra troops to Abkhazia and intensified ties with the separatists last month, moves Tbilisi says herald creeping annexation of the region. Vladimir Putin, at the time Russian president, said he acted to protect Abkhazians from an imminent Georgian attack. At the United Nations, Alasania said he had called for the Russian troops, who form a Commonwealth of Independent States peace-keeping force in Abkhazia, to be replaced by a U.N.-led police and security force. Churkin said that would need to be agreed by Abkhazia. The EU's Solana is expected to encourage a tentative dialogue Tbilisi launched with the separatists earlier this month, when a Georgian envoy held secret talks in Abkhazia. In early June, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will meet Russia's Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg, their first contact since Medvedev succeeded Putin as president. Most observers believe an interim peace deal may be on the table, possibly involving security guarantees for the Abkhazians, the return of ethnic Georgian refugees and measures to protect Georgia's sovereignty. Separatist foreign minister Sergei Shamba was skeptical about chances of progress. "That will depend on the Georgian position," he told Reuters. "The ball is in their court." (Additional reporting by Christian Lowe, James Kilner and Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Foreign ministers (L-R) Per Stig Moeller of Denmark, Sergej Lavrov of Russia, Jonas Gahr Stoere of Norway pose in front of a iceberg in the Ice Fjord near Ilulissat in Greenland ...
