FACTBOX: Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region

(Reuters) - Jubilant rebel troops proclaimed the "liberation" of Abkhazia on Wednesday as they surveyed a remote gorge abandoned by Georgian forces.

Here are some facts about Abkhazia:

HISTORY:

* A Black Sea region bordering Russia, Abkhazia was once the favorite holiday destination of the Soviet Union's elite. It accounts for about half of Georgia's coastline.

* Abkhazia is internationally recognized as part of Georgia but it has declared itself an independent state. It fought a war in the early 1990s to drive out Georgian forces. The conflict killed an estimated 10,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.

* Georgia, a former Soviet state, says just under 250,000 people -- most of them ethnic Georgians -- were driven out by the conflict and are now registered as internally displaced. Abkhazia's separatist authorities dispute this, saying there are no more than 160,000 internally displaced people.

BUILD-UP TO CONFLICT:

* On coming to power in January 2004 after a bloodless revolution, pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili vowed to make reuniting the country his top priority.

* On April 16, 2008, then Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to intensify ties with Abkhazia and Ossetia, a second Georgian breakaway territory. Tbilisi said the move amounted to a "creeping annexation" of its land by Moscow.