TBILISI, Georgia - TBILISI, Georgia -- Shots were fired Sunday at a motorcade carrying the presidents of Georgia and Poland, but no one was hurt, officials said.
Georgian officials said the gunfire came from the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.
But Irina Gagloyeva, a South Ossetian spokeswoman, denied that shots were fired in the area, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported. The Russian troops based in South Ossetia denied involvement, in a statement carried by the Russia's Interfax news agency.
Tension in the area remains high following Georgia's war with Russia over South Ossetia in August.
Georgia's Interior Ministry said the shots were fired as the motorcade carrying Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Polish President Lech Kaczynski approached a Russian military checkpoint in the Akhalgori area.
But legislator Marika Verulashvili said the incident happened when the motorcade reached a Georgian police checkpoint near South Ossetia after visiting a camp of Georgian refugees.
Georgia's Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia criticized Russia over the gunfire.
"We are facing the aggressive and irresponsible behaviour of the occupation forces," he said in televised remarks.
The Polish news agency PAP quoted an aide to Kaczynski, Michal Kaminski, as saying Russian soldiers were only 30 metres from the presidential motorcade when the shots were fired.
Georgia's Parliament speaker, David Bakradze, urged the international community to condemn the shooting, saying the incident "shows what kind of treacherous power we are facing."
A spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry in Moscow said he had no immediate comment on the Georgian claims.
Russia recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, as independent countries after the war and deployed nearly 4,000 troops to each region, a much bigger presence than before the conflict.
The war broke out when Saakashvili launched an offensive Aug. 7 to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia sent in troops which quickly routed the Georgian military.
The war and Moscow's subsequent recognition of the two breakaway regions have badly strained Russia-west ties.
