EU delegation to visit Georgia over Abkhazia

By Marja Novak

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - A group of European Union foreign ministers will go to Georgia next week to try to ease tension between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway region of Abkhazia, diplomats said on Friday.

The EU and NATO said last week that Russia had fuelled tensions by deploying extra troops in the Black Sea coastal territory that broke away from Tbilisi in a war after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The dispute between Georgia and its former Soviet master could further complicate EU efforts to launch talks on a new cooperation pact with Moscow.

"We expect the Slovenian, Swedish, Polish and Lithuanian foreign ministers to go to Georgia on Monday," a source in Slovenia's EU presidency said.

"The visit could ... help easing tensions between Georgia and Russia," said a Lithuanian foreign ministry spokeswoman.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said the visit would be aimed at establishing how dramatic the situation really was and averting its escalation through peaceful politics.

"Neither the foreign minister of Slovenia ... nor the European Union have any intention of supporting one side against the other now. That would be wrong," Rupel told a news conference in Ljubljana on Friday.

"What we want is to establish what is the real situation and of course prevent escalation," he added.