MOSCOW (Chinaview) -- Georgia demanded explanations from Russia over incidents of shooting in its breakaway region of Abkhazia by helicopters that Tbilisi said flew in from Russia, while Russia denied the charge and urged a "responsible approach" to the incidents.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that villages in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia Monday night "came under fire by military helicopters that, as preliminary information indicated, crossed Georgia's border with Russia from the north."

Abkhazia, an autonomous region in Georgia, declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union but is not recognized internationally. Only part of the Kodori Gorge has been under Tbilisi's control following armed conflicts in the early 1990s.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili described the incident as "a provocation aimed at destabilizing the situation both in the gorge and in Georgia as a whole," the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express "the Georgian sides' strong protest and its demand for immediate explanations related to this incident," Bezhuashvili's ministry said in a separate statement.

The deputy commander of Russia's Ground Forces, Lt. Gen. ValeryYevnevich, denied the claims and called them "a provocation," Itar-Tass said.

Ties between Moscow and Tbilisi have been strained by tensions over Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the country's bid to join NATO since President Mikhail Saakashvilicame to power in 2003.

Mikhail Kamynin, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, called on Tbilisi to take a responsible approach to the incident.

"We hope that Tbilisi will take a balanced and responsible approach to assessing this incident and will not allow emotions to gain the upper hand over realities," he was quoted by the Interfaxnews agency as saying.

Russia will work to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident, Kamynin said.