Shots were fired yesterday at a motorcade carrying the presidents of Georgia and Poland, but no-one was hurt, Georgian officials said.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili blamed Russian troops in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia for the incident.

"Frankly, I didn't expect the Russians to open fire," he said at a joint conference with Polish President Lech Kaczynski. "The reality is you are dealing with unpredictable people. They weren't happy to see our guest and they weren't happy to see me either."

Kaczynski said the shots were fired from only about 100ft from the motorcade. He said it was not immediately clear if the gunfire was aimed at the motorcade or shots were fired into the air.

He said the incident demonstrated the weakness of the French-brokered truce that ended Russia's August war with Georgia over South Ossetia. Kaczynski criticised the European Union and Nato which, he said, have failed to take united action to counter what he described as Russia's attempt to rebuild the Soviet empire. "Today, it's not too late yet, but tomorrow it might be," he said.

Irina Gagloyeva, a South Ossetian spokesman, denied that shots had been fired in the area, the Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported. The Russian troops in South Ossetia also denied involvement, in a statement carried by Russia's Interfax agency.

A spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry in Moscow said he had no immediate comment on the Georgian claims.

Some confusion surrounded the exact circumstances of the incident. Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the shots were fired as the motorcade approached a Russian military checkpoint near the Akhalgori district of South Ossetia. But others said the incident happened as the motorcade approached a Georgian police checkpoint near the breakaway province after visiting a camp of Georgian refugees.

Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia criticised Russia over the incident. "We are facing the aggressive and irresponsible behaviour of the occupation forces," he said in televised remarks.

Georgia's parliament speaker, David Bakradze, urged the international community to condemn the shooting, saying it "shows what kind of treacherous power we are facing."

Russia recognised South Ossetia and another break-away Georgian province, Abkhazia, as independent nations after the war and deployed nearly 4000 troops to each region, a far larger presence than before the conflict.

The war broke out when Saakashvili launched an offensive August 7 to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia sent in troops which quickly routed the Georgian military.

The war and Moscow's subsequent recognition of the two breakaway regions have badly strained Russia-Western ties.