Thursday near the breakaway province of Abkhazia. Abkhaz separatists said they had simply responded to Georgian fire and no Russian troops were involved.

Neither side reported casualties.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Abkhaz separatist fighters backed by two Russian armored personnel carriers fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons early Thursday at the checkpoint near the village of Ganmukhuri. He said the checkpoint was damaged.

Utiashvili said that Russian troops again fired at the checkpoint several hours later and a couple of Russian helicopter gunships buzzed the village.

Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said there had been an "appalling" violation of a French-brokered truce that ended the August war between Russia and Georgia.

Anatoly Zaitsev, the chief of staff for the Abkhaz armed forces, said that a group of Abkhaz troops patrolling the area were shelled from the Georgian side and returned fire, and no Russian troops were involved.

Georgia launched an attack in August to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Russia sent in troops that quickly routed the Georgian military and pushed deep into Georgia.

Russia has recognized both breakaway provinces as independent states after the war and deployed nearly 4,000 troops in each of the provinces _ much more than before the war.

Georgian officials and separatists blame each other for sporadic skirmishes.