(TBILISI) - A group of EU foreign ministers arrived Monday in Georgia in a show of support for the pro-Western government in its row with Moscow over Russian backing for separatist Georgian regions.

The foreign ministers of Slovenia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation European Union, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden were to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and other top officials, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

"The ministers will be concentrating on Russia-Georgia relations and the peaceful resolution of the frozen conflicts on Georgia's territory," Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maka Gigauri told AFP.

Lithuania's Petras Vaitiekunas, Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski, Sweden's Carl Bildt, Slovenia's Dmitrij Rupel and Latvia's Maris Riekstins were to arrive in Georgia around noon, Daiva Rimasauskaite, the deputy head of the information department at Lithuania's foreign ministry, told AFP.

Bildt told reporters Sunday that the group would "express our solidarity with Georgia and the EU's solidarity on Georgia's territorial integrity."

Rupel said the mission was aimed at measuring the level of tension between Georgia and Russia in the row over the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The two areas split from Georgia after armed conflict in the early 1990s, following Georgia's declaration of independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.

Tensions have been rising since mid-April and Saakashvili said Thursday that his country had been on the verge of war with Russia for days.

First, Moscow announced it was boosting ties with the pro-Russian separatist authorities in Abkhazia, then it increased the number of peacekeeping forces in the region, saying Georgia was preparing a military assault to retake the rebel territory.

Tbilisi accused Moscow of seeking to annex the territories and of breaching Georgia's sovereignty.

Tensions over Abkhazia have prompted expressions of concern from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.

Georgia's pro-Western government has accused Moscow of boosting support for the separatists in a bid to weaken the country and stymie its efforts to join the NATO military alliance.

Moscow's support for the breakaway regions was among reasons cited last month by Lithuania, a close ally of Georgia, when it vetoed EU attempts to start talks on a new "Partnership and Cooperation Agreement" with Russia.

Talks in Vilnius on Sunday produced a deal to have Lithuania's demands included in the mandate for the negotiations, paving the way for Lithuania to lift its veto provided all 27 EU members give the wording a green light at a meeting on May 26.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.