Georgian forces killed two Abkhaz fighters and captured six more during the clash Thursday - prompting an angry response from the president of Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. The gunbattle was one of the most serious in a series of recent incidents between Georgia and Abkhazia.

Interior Ministry of Georgia has dispatched investigators to the Kodori Gorge to examine witness reports that a plane believed to be violating Georgian airspace was shot down.

Georgia's Ambassador to the United Nations Irakli Alasania is accusing Russia of new airspace violations. Georgia is already pursuing investigations into an alleged incursion and missile launch earlier this month.

Russia has no right to use Abkhazia's territory for the Winter Olympics in 2014 without official approval from Tbilisi, Georgia's parliamentary speaker said commenting on an article published in the Russian press Thursday.

Hopes for the speedy resumption of a dialogue between Georgia and its breakaway republic of Abkhazia have once again been frustrated, the UN Secretary General has said in a report.

Senior political figures in Russia and in the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have expressed concern in recent days that the escalation of tensions in the South Ossetian conflict zone herald a new attempt by Georgia to restore what they consider its hegemony over that unrecognized republic by force of arms.

Georgia's internal reforms and the country's progress toward democratization were the main themes of a speech by Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli in the Czech capital today.

Russia's Defense Ministry dismissed allegations Monday that it was building a military base in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia. Earlier in the day, the territorial integrity commission in Georgia's parliament accused Moscow of launching the construction of a new base in Abkhazia's Gali district.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today to extend by six months its monitoring mission in Georgia's separatist region of Abkhazia. Both the Georgian ambassador to the UN, Irakli Alsania, and his Russian counterpart, Vitaly Churkin, expressed satisfaction with the new resolution and the extension of the mission's mandate.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli presented to an April 10 session of the UN Security Council a new Georgian proposal for resolving the Abkhaz conflict, which is likely to prove even less palatable to the Abkhaz than previous proposals.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli has again stressed that his government seeks a peaceful resolution of the conflict over his country's breakaway region of Abkhazia. But Mr. Nogaideli, who is visiting the United States, told VOA Georgian Service that any resolution must take into account Georgia's territorial integrity.

Moscow has accused Washington of following a double-standard in its diplomacy regarding frozen conflicts, a charge U.S. officials immediately rejected. Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused Washington of denying a visa to Sergei Shamba, whom he called the Abkhaz "foreign minister."