by Nikolai Topuria
TBILISI, July 22 (AFP) - Russia has begun to cut off gas supplies to the Georgian capital Tbilisi amid an escalating row with its neighbor over the pro-Moscow separatist region of South Ossetia.
Tbilisi officials confirmed to AFP Thursday that Russia's Gazprom energy giant began to limit supplies on Wednesday and that four of the city's regions would be left without gas by Thursday evening.
The Tbilgaz official said Gazprom was demanding payments from the impoverished republic that dated back half a year.
"Tbilisi needs 370,000 cubic meters of gas and now we will only be getting 200,000 cubic meters," Tbilgaz's Leval Pertselatse said by telephone.
Georgia is exclusively reliant on Russia for gas supplies and has for years struggled to pay its debts.
But the latest delivery cut came amid a growing confrontation between Moscow and Tbilisi linked to South Ossetia -- a separatist region that wants to become part of Russia and which the new leadership of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is trying to win back.
Gazprom -- a Russian state-controlled company -- has previously cut supplies to Ukraine and Belarus on Russia's western border amid diplomatic disputes with those two former Soviet republics.
The move comes as both Russia and Georgia are building up their military presence in the disputed region and one day after Tbilisi warned that it may rip up a 1992 South Ossetian peacekeeping agreement.
That deal was struck after Georgia was defeated in a civil war in which South Ossetia received military assistance from Moscow. It then declared independence and later sought to become a part of Russia.
Georgia's border with South Ossetia is now patrolled by Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian troops. But all sides involved claim that the other party is sending additional supplies and reinforcements in breach of the agreement.
This week, Georgia accused Russia of sending 40 armored personnel carriers and tanks destined for the South Ossetian forces.
Russia denies this, saying that the supplies were only meant to replace broken vehicles that needed repairs as part of a regular rotation.
Georgia has threatened to build up its own forces in the region as Russian newspapers have written grim headlines warning that war is on the horizon.
The Russian commander of the joint peacekeeping force said Thursday that Georgia has illegally stationed 3,000 troops in the region -- it is only allowed 500 -- and setting up customs points in South Ossetia, breaking the accord.
"The first thing that we must do is remove all of the military and equipment from the conflict zone which is there in breach of our agreement," the Russian commander, Svyatoslav Nabedorov, told ITAR-TASS.
He added that Georgia has set up 10 illegal customs check points in the region. Tbilisi charges that Russia's border with Ossetia is being used to smuggle contraband -- including unlicensed alcohol.
Moscow's conflict with Tbilisi has greater geopolitical repercussions and is being watched by Washington officials with growing concern.
Saakashvili has leaned toward the West since toppling Georgia's old regime in a peaceful revolution and winning the presidency in January, vowing to reunify his fractured republic.
Georgia is constructing a lucrative gas pipeline from the energy-rich Caspian Sea that skirts Russia's border and which is heavily backed by the United States.
The Russian foreign ministry and the US State Department have held regular discussions over Georgia in recent months, with both sides seeking a way out of the conflict without confrontation.