TBILISI -- Georgian government forces recaptured three rebel- held towns in the west of the former Soviet republic Wednesday, in a sign that the army's fortunes may at last be improving after months of humiliating defeats.
Georgian forces retook the two south-western towns of Lanchkhuti and Khoni, as well as the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, which rebels had been blockading for weeks, cutting off food deliveries to eastern Georgia.
The Georgian authorities delivered the rebels an ultimatum in the wake of Wednesday's successful offensive, guaranteeing their safety if they turned in their weapons and ceased their armed resistance.
The rebels, who are supporters of Georgia's deposed President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, were beaten back Wednesday when they attempted to attack the town of Tskhaltubo, which lies on the path to Georgia's second largest city, Kutaisi.
A Georgian defense spokesman said 20 Gamsakhurdia loyalists were killed in the battle for Tskhaltubo, and 40 wounded. Rebels lost two tanks, artillery and an armored vehicle in the skirmish, he said.
Gamsakhurdia's troops were forced to retreat to his west Georgian stronghold of Zugdidi, the town he arrived in last month after a 1 year exile in southern Russia to launch his campaign to return to power.
In a separate development, the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to an appeal by Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze for troops to unblock the Poti-Tbilisi railway and protect this vital corridor from rebel attack.
'Russian troops will act exclusively to ensure the unobstructed passage of important cargo to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan,' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
At the same time, the statement stressed that Russia was acting in conjunction with Georgian, Armenian and Azeri units and denied that Moscow was 'intervening in the internal affairs of another independent state.'
The positive response from the Kremlin came days after Georgia appealed to all four of its ex-Soviet neighbors to help turn back the rebel assault with military assistance, raising alarms that food deliveries for all of them were threatened by the rebels blockade of Poti.
'We need to ensure our own security and to defend our borders, but it is impossible to achieve this without the Russian Army,' Georgian Ambassador to Russia Valerian Advadze told a news conference. 'Until we have enough forces, military hardware, to achieve this, the Russian army should stay in Georgia.'
Georgia's Defense Minister Georgy Karkarashvili was in Kutaisi Wednesday, personally supervising the defense of the city as refugees streamed in from other west Georgian towns that had already fallen to the rebels.
The Georgian government said the rebels were bolstered by support from the Confederation of Caucasus Peoples, an organization of ethnic minorities in southern Russia who also have actively aided the Abkhaz separatists in their successful battle to tear their province of Abkhazia offfrom Georgia.
Meanwhile, Tbilisi was seeking grain, gas and oil supplies from Moscow.
