Georgia seeks EU police for breakaway region

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Georgia wants the European Union to send police to the separatist region of Abkhazia, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Georgy Baramidze said on Wednesday.

"We are going to present this request to the European Union, we are going to ask for European police forces to be sent to Abkhazia," he told a news conference after a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg.

"What we need is for everyone to take part, including Russia."

Russia maintains a peacekeeping force separating Georgian and Abkhazian troops in the breakaway Georgian region under a United Nations-brokered ceasefire signed in 1994.

It has recently begun reinforcing the contingent, sparking fears of conflict with Georgia.

Russia has said its troop build-up is needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans to attack Abkhazia, a sliver of land by the Black Sea, and has accused Tbilisi of trying to suck the West into a war -- allegations Georgia rejects.

(Reporting by Gilbert Reilhac, writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Robert Woodward)

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