Russia shot down Georgian spy plane: U.N

Soldiers march during an Independence Day military parade in Tbilisi May 26, 2008.

TBILISI (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Monday that a Russian air force plane shot down an unmanned Georgian spy drone over Abkhazia last month, strengthening Tbilisi's claims that Moscow is aiding the rebel territory.

A U.N. report compiled from video footage, witness statements and radar records was the weightiest independent endorsement to date of Tbilisi's allegation -- denied by Moscow -- that a Russian jet downed its spy plane on April 20.

The report said radar records showed the fighter jet headed into Russian airspace after shooting down the spy plane over breakaway Abkhazia.

"Absent compelling evidence to the contrary, this leads to the conclusion that the aircraft belonged to the Russian air force," said the report posted on the Web site of the UN mission in Georgia, www.unomig.org.

Russia's defense ministry denied this, saying "planes of Russian air forces made no flights near Georgia's border on April 20".

"There can't be any talk of any violation of Georgia's state border, to say nothing of shooting down an unmanned aircraft," said a ministry spokesman.

Russia had previously said the drone was shot down by anti-aircraft batteries operated by Abkhazian separatists.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said the U.N. report was "the first ever case when an international organization ... pointed at Russia for such actions" and contained "a direct accusation against Russia of an act of aggression".

European Union foreign ministers expressed full support for the UNOMIG investigation just before the report was released.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, called the U.N. report very balanced and "rather critical of the Russian federation, but not without criticism of Georgia either".

"Those who have been found responsible should explain themselves," he told a news conference.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he would visit Georgia next week to look at ways to deepen its ties with the bloc.

Last month's incident escalated tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi, already locked in a bitter dispute over Russian support for Abkhazia and Georgia's ambitions of joining NATO.

Georgian officials had released a video, recorded by the spy plane's camera before it was shot down. It showed a fighter plane approaching and then launching a missile in its direction.

Abkhazia is recognized internationally as part of Georgia. But it has run its own affairs since it drove out Georgian forces in a separatist war in the 1990s.

The conflict could frustrate Tbilisi's ambitions of joining NATO, and is a source of volatility in a vital transit route for oil and gas exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets.

Russia provides assistance to the separatists and has peacekeepers in Abkhazia, prompting Tbilisi to accuse Russia of a creeping annexation of the region.

The U.N. report criticized Georgia over the spy plane incident, saying flying surveillance aircraft over Abkhazia violated a 1994 ceasefire deal called the Moscow Agreement.

"This kind of military intelligence-gathering is bound to be interpreted by the Abkhaz side as a precursor to a military operation, particularly in a period of tense relations between the sides," it said.

But it said that was no justification for Russia shooting down a Georgian plane.

"Enforcement action by third parties -- in this case the Russian Federation -- in the zone of conflict is fundamentally inconsistent with the Moscow Agreement and ... undercuts the ceasefire and separation of forces regime," it said.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Christian Lowe, edited by Richard Meares)