Report: Polish and Lithuanian presidents plan to visit Georgia

(dpa) - Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus are considering travelling to Georgia in hopes of deflating tensions in the region, Polish newspaper Dziennik reported Tuesday.

Tensions between Russia and Georgia have escalated over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have close ties to Moscow and have been independently run since the early 1990s when fighting with Georgian troops ended.

"We are weighing up all the options. In any case, the head of state would consult the prime minister before taking any steps," the newspaper quoted Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Mariuz Handzlik as saying.

A spokesman for the Lithuanian president, Simonas Sautunas, said the visit was a "possible option."

The Polish president sent a representative to Georgia Friday in a gesture of support in the dispute with Russia over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Warsaw considers the two breakaway regions of to be an integral part of Georgia.

Russia Sunday denied Georgia's claim that a Russian fighter jet shot down an unmanned Georgian spy drone as it flew over Abkhazia.

Russia's decision last week to establish legal ties with the two separatist regions prompted Georgia's Foreign Ministry to accuse Moscow of plotting to annex the regions.

The ministry called the Russian move "one more dangerous step aimed at the de facto annexation of an integral part of Georgia's territory."

Georgia, a former Soviet republic, has appealed to the "whole international community" to do everything in their power to stop Russia's "violation of Georgia's internationally recognized territorial integrity."