Bomb deaths raise tension in Georgian rebel region

TBILISI, July 14 (Reuters) A bomb killed two children and wounded several other people in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region today, a sign of mounting tension between Tbilisi and pro-Moscow separatists.

''It was an act of terror masterminded by the Georgian side and aimed at a Defence Ministry official,'' the rebel region's Emergencies Minister Boris Chochiyev told Reuters.

The blast came after days of warnings from Russian security services that Georgia is planning to use the occasion of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in St Petersburg this weekend to regain control of the region, a claim hotly denied in Tbilisi.

Russia, which props up the rebel government in South Ossetia, warned Georgia on Thursday against ''plans to conduct a military action in the next few days''.

Chochiyev said the two children in their early teens had died in the regional capital, Tskhinvali, when a remote-controlled bomb went off as a Defence Ministry official was leaving his house. The official survived, he said.

''Georgia is carrying out a plan aimed at eliminating South Ossetia's high-ranking officials,'' Chochiyev added.

Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikhail Saakashvili, last week visited U S President George W Bush to discuss his desire to regain control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Bush is currently in St Petersburg for talks with President Vladimir Putin, who will be keen to avoid any clashes in the volatile Caucasus during the G8 summit.

BOMB On Sunday, South Ossetia's security chief died when a similar bomb detonated as he was opening his garage.

Georgia, which lost control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia in wars in the early 1990s, denied any link to the explosions.

''We have nothing whatsoever to do with these killings,'' said Giorgy Khaindrava, the Georgian minister in charge of dealing with the breakaway regions.

Hours after todau's explosion Georgian police barred two Russian officials from entering South Ossetia.

''We ask everybody to refrain from any movements on South Ossetian territory,'' Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said, adding that the officials had not warned Georgia of their travel plans.

Russia, which has given South Ossetians passports and pays their pensions, blamed Tbilisi for aggravating the situation.

''We are receiving trustworthy evidence of Georgian plans to conduct a military action,'' the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said.

''Nobody should be under the illusion that attempts to solve this problem by a military swoop would go unanswered.'' REUTERS PKS VV1736