GEORGIA is “very close” to a war with Russia, a Georgian minister said yesterday, citing Moscow’s decision to send extra troops to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

    “We literally have to avert war,” Georgian State Minister for Issues of Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili told a news briefing during a trip to Brussels.

    Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: “Very close, because we know Russians very well.

    “We see Russian troops entering our territories,” he said.

    Russia has said the troop build-up was needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans for an attack on breakaway Abkhazia and has accused Tbilisi of trying to suck the West into a war — both of which are allegations that ex-Soviet Georgia rejects.

    An extra Russian contingent began arriving in Abkhazia last week. Moscow has not said how many would be added but said the total would remain within the 3,000 limit allowed under a United Nations-brokered cease-fire agreement signed in 1994. (SD-Agencies)