By Niko Mchedlishvili
TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia demanded on Tuesday that Russiaapologise after a U.N. report said a Russian air force jet hadshot down a Georgian spy plane last month, but Moscow said itdid not trust the report's conclusions.
"Georgia protests and demands from Russia an apology andcompensation for the cost of the drone," Deputy ForeignMinister Grigol Vashadze told reporters after Russia's envoywas summoned to his ministry.
Russia denies any involvement in shooting down the unmannedaircraft, which was brought down on April 20 over Abkhazia, aMoscow-backed separatist region of Georgia.
Georgia's leaders, who have angered Russia by trying tojoin NATO, have described the incident as an act of aggression.
The U.N. report strengthened Georgian accusations -- backedby some of its Western allies -- that Russia is stoking tensionin the volatile region, scene of a separatist war in the 1990s.
Russia's ambassador in Tbilisi, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, wassummoned to the Georgian Foreign Ministry earlier on Tuesdayand handed a note of protest over the incident.
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had noissue with the U.N. team that compiled the report, but itbelieved the information it had used was "tendentious and notobjective".
"Overall, the quality of these investigations does notinspire confidence," said a ministry statement, which wasposted on its Internet site www.mid.ru.
Abkhazia and another rebel region, South Ossetia, areconstant sources of tension in the stormy relationship betweenMoscow and Tbilisi.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday he wantedconstructive ties with Georgia.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told officials inTbilisi on Tuesday that he wanted to talk. "Russia holds thekey (to a solution). We need to find a way out from the currentdeadlock, together with Russia," Saakashvili said. "I'd like totry (to find a way out) with Russia's new president."
ENERGY CORRIDOR
The dispute over Georgia's rebel regions also feedsinstability in the South Caucasus region, an important transitroute for oil from the Caspian Sea to world markets.
The U.N. report, released on Monday, said radar records andvideo footage from the downed aircraft showed it was shot downby a missile fired from a Russian aircraft.
The U.N. report also said Georgia was violating a ceasefireagreement by flying reconnaissance flights over Abkhazia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said through aninterpreter in Copenhagen that the drone incident was thelatest in a long line of "provocations" by Georgia's leaders.He said Georgia had failed to adhere to agreements with Russia.
"Russia has complied fully and continues to comply withwhat we have agreed with the Georgian side," Lavrov said.
"We hope that countries that have influence on Georgia willput that influence into effect so that Georgia lives up to itscommitments... rather than continue provoking Georgia andprompting it to gain admission into NATO in the hope that thiswill somehow solve all the problems that Georgia has."
NATO offered Georgia and fellow ex-Soviet state Ukraineeventual membership of the alliance at a summit last month butdid not give them a timetable.
Moscow says that if the two become members they could beused as a bridgehead to move NATO troops and missiles right upto Russia's borders, compromising its security.
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow andGelu Sulugiuc in Copenhagen; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editingby Tim Pearce)
