US, EU urge calm in missile row

A missile that landed in Georgia was ditched, not fired, by a Russian jet as it fled Georgian airspace, a Georgian official said yesterday as the United States and Europe urged the two powers to stay calm.

The missile weighing about a ton landed - but did not explode - in a farmer's field about 65 km west of Tbilisi on Monday, sparking a slanging match between Georgia and Russia and re-igniting old tensions.

Georgia initially said the missile had been fired by Russian jets. But a Georgian official said yesterday that the Russian pilot dumped the missile after coming under fire from separatist forces in South Ossetia, a Moscow-backed breakaway region of Georgia, in an apparent mix up.