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Abkhazia official fears Georgia is preparing new war MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) - Sukhumi believes a renewal of Georgian- Abkhaz fighting is a possibility and is sure that Tbilisi is preparing for it. "The Georgian authorities lack time. They failed to settle the conflict politically, because we defined our course long ago, and that is independence and Abkhazia can accept neither extended autonomy nor special status. Tbilisi has begun a buildup," Abkhaz Defense Minister, Lt. Gen. Sultan Sosnaliyev said in an interview published by in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper on Friday. The Georgian army has qualitatively changed recently, he said....

A £2bn pipeline to carry Caspian oil to Europe through Georgia risks being damaged by Chechen mercenaries or ecological saboteurs sponsored by Russian intelligence, a senior Georgian security official and sources in Moscow claim. The GRU, the sophisticated elite of Russia's military intelligence corps, has allegedly allocated money towards hiring or training eco-warriors and mercenaries to sabotage the 1,100-mile project, which is run by a consortium headed by BP and is expected to be operational by 2005. "We are aware of this threat," a Georgian cabinet member said. "The pipeline is a key strategic interest to Georgia and we are...

BAGHDAD (Dow Jones)--Iraq (news - web sites)'s Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum said Wednesday that Iraq would resume oil exports via a pipeline to Turkey very soon. "We have a technical problem that we working on and, hopefully, in a very short time we will be able to operate that pipeline," the minister told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. The pipeline has been plagued by sabotage since the war ended. It reopened briefly in mid-August only to shut down after a couple of days after saboteurs detonated explosives under the pipe. The pipeline was again reopened Oct. 18 but...

The United States military has deployed five teams of 10 airborne snipers to defend Iraq's northern oil pipelines from acts of sabotage by forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein. Sergeant Brian Stinson said final modifications were being made to Blackhawk UH-60 helicopters, before snipers from the elite Tiger Force could begin patrols along the crucial oil supply lines. "There is so much area to cover that it requires precision fire, we're on call for 24-hours a day and can be airborne within 30 minutes," he said. Protection of Iraq's northern pipelines, which stretch 500 kilometres to Turkey and almost...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Photo: AFP SANGACHAL, Azerbaijan (AFP) - The inaugural section of an oil pipeline that will pump crude from the Caspian Sea to Turkey's Mediterranean coast was laid in Azerbaijan, marking the start of construction on the US-backed project.The 2.95-billion-dollar (3.05-billion-euro) pipeline heralds a US-backed challenge to Russia's stranglehold on export routes from the oil-rich Caspian.In a ceremony near Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, heads of state from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey -- Heidar Aliyev, Eduard Shevardnadze and Ahmet Necdet Sezer -- watched as a length of steel pipe was lowered into the ground."The...

ANKARA, Turkey -- A sponsor group led by BP has agreed on a plan to finance a pipeline project to carry 1 million barrels per day of Caspian crude oil to Turkey's southern coast, a Turkish energy ministry official said Tuesday. The pipeline will stretch 1,730 kilometers from the Azeri capital Baku to the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan through Georgia's capital Tbilisi and has a price tag of about $2.9 billion. "Between 20 percent and 30 percent of the cost will be financed by the sponsor group companies in cash," said a senior energy ministry official, who declined to...