In breaking news, reports have emerged from Tbilisi that a missile or bomb has been dropped on Georgia by Russia. Described as an "act of aggression", the weapon is understood to have touched down near to Tsitelubani - a village lying around 40 miles north-west of Tbilisi - on August 6^th 2007. Apparently, the ordnance did not explode on impact.

In response to the accusations, officials within Russia have denied any such action.

The situation was initially detailed to news agency Reuters by Vano Merabishvili, the Georgian Interior Minister. Describing the weapon as either a guided missile or a bomb, he said it had been deployed by two fighters belonging to the Russian Air Force, and put a time on the event of 1930 yesterday evening. He added that the two military jets covered at least 60 kilometres of Georgian territory during their flight, that the ordnance weighed 700 kilograms, and that, unexploded, it caused no fatalities or injuries. Previously, Mr Merabishvili had told the news agency: "Our radars show that these jets flew from Russia and then flew back in the same direction that they had come from". He continued: "I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown from the territory of another state."

The claim was swiftly dismissed by Moscow, with a prominent military figure stating: "Russia's air force neither on Monday nor Tuesday flew flights over Georgia...Russia has not violated the borders of sovereign Georgia".

Relations between Russia and Georgia have, since the collapse of the Soviet Union sixteen years ago, been under some degree of strain. In 2006, the situation escalated when Georgia banished four officers from the Russian Army, on the grounds that they were spying. A vitriolic political row consequently developed in which Moscow deported several Georgians in return.

The claim that Russian Air Force aircraft have breached Georgian airspace is one often made by the smaller state; Russia always denying the accusations.

Source - Armed Forces International's East European Correspondent