Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said here on Tuesday he expects the revival of military cooperation with Georgia, despite mounting tensions between the two former Soviet republics.

"I hope that military cooperation between the defense ministries of Russia and Georgia will be revived," Ivanov said at a meeting with his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Baramidze, Interfaxnews agency reported.

"I hope that our meetings will result in specific steps aimed at reviving relations between our defense ministries and resuming our military cooperation," Ivanov told Baramidze, who arrived hereMonday for a three-day working visit aimed at soothing increasingly strained bilateral relations.

"The interests of Russia and Georgia overlap and largely coincide," Ivanov noted.

Baramidze said Georgia is ready to advance cooperation with Russia and settle all bilateral problems on the basis of mutual interests.

Talks on resuming military contacts were held during a visit toMoscow by Georgia's former defense minister early this year, but no specific results were made.

Russia and Georgia are at odds over Georgia's South Ossetia andAbkhazia regions, which won de facto independence in separatist wars in 1992 and 1993.

Georgia has accused Russia of backing the two separatist regions while Russia calls for the settlement of the crisis by peaceful means.

Last week, Russia issued statements accusing Georgian troops offiring at a Russian delegation in South Ossetia and of threateningthe safety of Russian tourists in Abkhazia.

Georgia, on its part, said Russian military aircraft violated its air space and warned to open fire on vessels that "illegally" entered the Black Sea waters of Abkhazia.

Source: Xinhua