European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Georgia on Thursday he hoped to help "lower the temperature" in a dispute between Tbilisi and Russia over a breakaway region, according to Reuters. Western diplomats say a row over Georgia's separatist Abkhazia region, which threw off central control in a 1990s war, has escalated to the point where it would now take only a small spark to ignite new fighting. Solana arrived in Georgia -- part of a crescent of ex-Soviet states where Russia and the West are competing for control over vital energy transit routes -- at the start of a two-day visit that will also include rare meetings with separatist leaders. "Our main mission is to lower the temperature," Solana told a news conference in Tbilisi before flying for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on the Black Sea coast. Asked about Moscow's policy on Abkhazia, Solana told reporters: "Russia is a very important player. We have very good relations with Russia. The last Russian measures don't contribute to a lower temperature." Georgia's allies in Europe and the United States say Moscow is largely responsible for the new tension because of a series of steps it undertook to intensify its ties with the separatists. Moscow pulled out of a trade embargo on Abkhazia this year and sent in extra troops to counter what it said was an imminent Georgian attack. Georgia, which wants to join NATO and the EU, says it has no plans to attack the region and accused Russia of trying to annexe part of its territory. A U.N. report concluded last month that a Russian air force jet had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over Abkhazia, though Russia denied involvement. In Brussels, an EU diplomat said Solana was not going to Georgia to announce any new initiative, but to stress the level of EU interest in the Abkhazia issue. "It shows it to Georgia, but it also shows it to Russia, which is equally useful. Solana is going to show that we are already involved, we are already engaged." Solana is to meet Saakashvili in the Georgian port of Batumi. The location is symbolic because the port is just across the Black Sea from new EU members Bulgaria and Romania, underlining Brussels's interest in the region. Solana is expected on Friday to travel to the separatists' capital Sukhumi, a short journey from Batumi along the Black Sea coast. The city still bears the scars of the 1990s fighting, with many buildings wrecked or deserted.
