In the wake of the assassination attempt against President Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian parliament has called for full access to Russia's five military bases in the country.

A government spokesman said there were fears that the attackers might be being shielded at the bases. He said there were suspicions that the Russians might help them to escape the country.

Mr Shevardnadze blamed the attack on external forces. He said that the man who organised a previous assassination attempt in 1995 was now living an "easy life" in Russia.

One of the attackers was killed in the incident

The BBC Moscow correspondent said the calls for Russian co-operation reflected suspicions that rogue elements in the Russian security services might be involved in the incident.

The Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, has expressed shock at the attempted assassination. He said all countries in the region should unite in the fight against terrorism.

The attack

Gunmen using grenade launchers and automatic weapons attacked Mr Shevardnadze's motorcade on Monday as it travelled towards his official residence in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The President escaped unharmed but, in an exchange of fire, two of his bodyguards were killed and four others seriously injured. One of the attackers was also killed.

There were also several civilian casualties.

Mr Shevardnadze, 70, appeared on national television shortly after Monday's attack, saying by God's will he had survived and was in good health.

On Tuesday, Mr Shevardnadze spoke to reporters and suggested the attack may have been linked to a struggle over oil revenues.

"A possible positive decision on the transit of Caspian oil across Georgia's territory gives rise to great resistance on the part of certain forces."

He did not elaborate but appealed to people to keep calm.

Shevardnadze talks to reporters on Tuesday

"We are all in place and will do what we need to do. We will not allow chaos and instability, even at the cost of our lives," he said.

The Georgian Health Minister, Avtandtil Dzhordenadze, said the attacker who was killed had a passport showing him to be an ethnic Chechen living in Dagestan, an area bordering Russia's rebel region of Chechnya in the north Caucasus.

Second attempt

Mr Shevardnadze is best known in the West as the right-hand man of the former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1995, a car bomb exploded in the courtyard of the Georgian parliament. Mr Shevardnadze escaped with cuts and bruises.

He has made himself extremely unpopular since becoming president in a coup in 1992 by targeting corruption and organised crime.

Last week, he announced a major crackdown on bribe taking, a problem seen as endemic in the bureacracies of former Soviet republics.
 

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