TBILISI, Georgia, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Georgia's president on Monday called for improved relations with Russia, suggesting a summit with his Russian counterpart in a bid to resolve the dispute over the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.
"I ask (President Vladimir) Putin ... to understand that the Abkhazian problem will never be taken off the agenda of bilateral relations, considering the role the Russian authorities and influential circles play in the conflict," said President Eduard Shevardnadze, adding that the key to improving bilateral Georgian-Russia ties lies in solving the Abkhazian problem.
"Vladimir Putin is a politician with whom constructive cooperation and settlement of the most difficult problems is possible in the interest of both Russia and Georgia," Shevardnadze said.
He said that while regaining control of Abkhazia was a priority, Georgia would not resort to armed conflict with the separatists now in control of the territory.
"Fighting to return Abkhazia (to Georgian control) would only be considered when all other peaceful means of solving this conflict are exhausted," Shevardnadze said.
Clashes between hundreds of Georgian militants and Abkhazian forces are continuing for the second week, with both sides reporting losses.
On Sunday, Abkhazian Deputy Defense Minister Garry Kupalba said his forces had killed 20 rebels.
Abkhazia, a sliver of land on the Black Sea coast, declared independence from Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in 1993 Abkhazian troops evicted Georgian forces and thousands of ethnic Georgians from the republic at the end of a bloody civil war.
Since 1994, after a cease-fire agreement of sorts was reached, Russian peacekeepers under a U.N. mandate have patrolled the border area between Georgia and Abkhazia.
Last week, Georgia's Parliament demanded that the Russian peacekeeping force be withdrawn.
The Abkhazian authorities have declared a partial mobilization, and have warned that a swift departure of Russian forces will lead to all-out war between Abkhazia and Georgia.
On Sunday, senior Abkhazian officials said the territory, which is not recognized by the international community, would seek to become part of the Russian Federation.
But Putin has indicated that he will continue to accept Georgian sovereignty over Abkhazia, even if the region remains de facto independent of Tbilisi.
Putin said he had no intention of getting involved in internal Georgian politics and said Russia would be willing to withdraw the peacekeeping force if Georgia takes on its international responsibilities in the area.
Shevardnadze said he had no reason to doubt Putin's word that he would respect the "territorial integrity of Georgia."
Russia has expressed growing concern at the renewed fighting in the region, and has reinforced its border with Abkhazia by dispatching additional detachments of the army and Interior Ministry forces to boosts Federal Border Guard troops already patrolling the area.
Russia's border guard chief, Gen. Konstantin Totsky, said Monday he expected the Georgian and Chechen militants now in Abkhazia might attempt to cross the border into Russia's autonomous republics in the North Caucasus.
Totsky told reporters forces in the Russian autonomous republics of Kabardino-Balkariya, Karachayevo-Cherkessiya and North Ossetia-Alaniya on the borders with Georgia and Abkhazia are being reinforced, adding that Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry troops are supplementing his own border guards, which are "ready to repulse any attack."
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said a group numbering 50 militants had approached Abkhazia's border with Karachayevo-Cherkessiya, possibly preparing to cross the border into Russia.
