CORRECTED-Russia threatens Georgia with force

Please note this story moved on April 25. Corrects surname of parliamentary committee head, paragraph 5

By Oleg Shchedrov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia warned on Friday it could use military force to protect its "compatriots" in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia if they were attacked.

Valery Kenyaikin, the Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy for the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) said Moscow was "doing everything to avert a military scenario.

"But if a war is unleashed, we will have to defend our compatriots even through military means. We will use every means to do this, there should be no doubt about this," he told reporters.

Russia's ties with Georgia have been strained for more than a decade by Moscow's support of the two breakaway regions, which threw off Georgian rule after wars in the 1990s and where most of the population have been issued with Russian passports.

Givi Targamadze, head of Georgia's parliamentary committee for defence and security, called the Russian statement a "direct military threat against Georgia."

"This shows that Russia is in an aggressive mood and the international community must realise this immediately. Georgia for its part is prepared to repel any military threat," he told Reuters.

Abkhaz separatists said that Georgian forces were mobilising at the de-facto border with the rebel region in the Kodori gorge, a gateway to the province.