May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze called on the international community to intervene in his country's conflict with Russia over a military buildup in the separatist region of Abkhazia.

``We are concerned that at some point the situation in Abkhazia will spill over,'' Gurgenidze said in a Bloomberg Television interview today in the capital Tbilisi. ``This is why we are urgently calling on the international community to step in and to engage in constructive but outcome- and result- oriented discussions with Russia.''

Gurgenidze said Russia's ``illegal deployment'' of additional troops in Abkhazia is a ``deliberate escalation of tensions'' in the region. ``Russia is creating civilian and military instruments for occupying part of our sovereign territory,'' he said.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accuses Russia of backing separatist regimes in Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, which have pro-Russian leaderships and where Russian peacekeepers are stationed. Saakashvili pledges to bring the regions, which broke away from Georgia during wars in the 1990s, back under central-government control. Most of their citizens hold Russian passports.

`Alarming Events'

Russia is concerned about Georgia's ``tendency toward fueling the confrontation, and as we see on the basis of increasingly alarming events, toward attempts to resolve these conflicts by force,'' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today in comments broadcast on state television.

His ministry said on April 29 that Georgia, a former Soviet republic of 4.6 million people, has massed more than 1,500 soldiers and police officers in the Kodori Gorge area of Abkhazia.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said by telephone today that 500 police officers have been mobilized and that no military personnel are deployed in the area.

Gurgenidze said no one, ``even the UN,'' knows how many Russian troops are in Abkhazia. Former Foreign Minister Davit Bakradze said on May 1 that Russia has as many as 3,000 peacekeepers in Abkhazia, up from the previous level of about 2,000.

Air-Defense Treaty

Russia's Defense Ministry said on April 30 that it had increased its peacekeeping force in Abkhazia and added 15 observation posts on the Abkhaz border with the rest of Georgia in response to ``provocative actions'' by Georgian forces. Russian peacekeepers are stationed in Abkhazia under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate.

Georgia today pulled out of a regional air-defense cooperation treaty, Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said by telephone.

``Georgia wants to move toward European standards,'' Kutelia said. ``We have clear plans to move closer to NATO. Politically and technically it was becoming impossible for us to adhere to this treaty, which we joined in 1995. Georgia had no direct military cooperation within the CIS framework, so there was no need for it.''

Lavrov said Georgia's recent moves are ``evidence of a policy that, unfortunately, consists of undermining all agreements, particularly agreements on settling the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi hbedwell@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 5, 2008 12:53 EDT