Georgians join Russia in hunt for Chechen rebels

Russia and Georgia are to launch joint attacks against Chechen rebels based in a border area of Georgia, Moscow said yesterday.

Georgia recently started its own operations in the area, the Pankisi Gorge, and had previously refused Russia's offers of help. Moscow says the rebels use Pankisi as a base and a supply line and has scorned the Georgian efforts as a sham.

The announcement of the operations was made by the Russian Interior Minister, Boris Gryzlov. He said: "We are talking about a joint search. The Georgian side will carry out the detentions independently. Once the members of the bandit groups are identified, it won't be too hard to catch them."

Mr Gryzlov's comments contradicted a statement made hours before by a senior Georgian official, who said only his country's forces should be involved in the operations in the gorge.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Georgia's almost two-week campaign against rebels based in the gorge had not yielded substantial results.

Russia has long accused Georgia of providing shelter to Chechen rebels, while Georgia has countered that Russia pushed the militants on to Georgian territory when it began its second war in Chechnya. The United States believes some militants could be linked to al-Qa'ida.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said Russia was worried that the militants would attackRussia from their new location in Georgia, and said there were indications that the militants would launch terrorist acts inside Georgia that could then spill into a third country.

Georgia shares a mountainous 450-mile border with Russia, as well as shorter frontiers with Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In particular, the spokesman expressed concern over unspecified reports that militants had left the Pankisi Gorge and headed for Abkhazia, Georgia's troubled separatist province on the Black Sea, which borders on Russia. Russian peace-keepers patrol the province, and Georgia has accused Moscow of aiding the separatists.