Tbilisi, Georgia: Georgia called in Russia's ambassador yesterday to protest Moscow's decision to lift trade restrictions on the breakaway region of Abkhazia, which wants the world to recognise it as an independent nation like Kosovo.

Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said officials would be seeking further explanation from Russia's top diplomat in Georgia regarding Moscow's announcement, made Thursday. "This move cannot be seen as anything but a bold-faced attempt to infringe on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia [and] as an encouragement to separatism," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released before the meeting.

The decision to lift the trade restrictions was Russia's strongest move to date.