(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-18 03:01

MOSCOW -- Russian fighter-bombers "did not violate Georgia's air space on August 6," Chief of the Russian Air Force General Staff Igor Khvorov said in a statement in Georgia on Friday.

"I am absolutely confident that no plane transgressed the border," Khvorov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying after a visit to the site near the village of Tsitelubani in the Gori region, where Georgia accused that a Russian fighter-bomber launched an anti-radar missile.

"As for the incident with the missile, I have not come to any conclusions yet, as the information is quite contradicting and is not clear. But I can say that the examination of the locality showed that the falling missile does not fit into one pattern that should occur in such cases," he said.

"After the examination of the missile remains, which are kept in Tbilisi, something may be clarified," he added.

Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said on Thursday that "we informed the Russian side that there is enough evidence about the transgression of Georgia's air space from Russia and launching a missile by the Russian fighter-bomber in the Gori region."

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Ustiashvili said earlier on August 7 that two Russian fighter jets on the previous evening "violated the Georgian airspace and dropped a rocket near the Tsitelubani settlement" that did not explode and caused no casualty.

The air-ground rocket fell "several tens meters from a highway and houses of rural dwellers, nobody has been hurt." Ustiashvili was quoted as saying. The village is located some 15 kilometers from the Gori city and is close to the South Ossetia region.

But Russia has denied attacking Georgia. The foreign office in Moscow said none of its fighter jets were in the area and that its peacekeepers in South Ossetia did see an unknown plane fire a missile but that it arrived from over Georgian territory.