Mebonia was on an EU monitoring trip at the time of the attack

A Georgian villager also died in the attack and a police officer was injured, in the border village of Muzhava on Saturday, according to officials.

The Georgian interior ministry said that Mebonia's car was hit by a explosive device and gunfire followed.

However, they added that is was unclear whether the gunfire was an exchange between sides or simply bodyguards reacting to the blast.

A Georgian police officer travelling with the group told Russian television that shots came without warning "from the Russian side".

Grenade attack

Helena Bedwell, a journalist in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, said: "It is quite a dramatic development.

"In the bordering village ... the situation started heating up last night when according to the residents of this village said that they heard a series on gun shots and artillary coming towards the village ... And according to them it was not just Abkhazians but also Russians soldiers patroling the area.

"Right now the village is calm, EU monitors are controlling the situation."

Matt Siegel, a journalist also in capital, said: "The Georgians are saying that they have found an antenna from this device which indicates that it was remotely detonated.

"They have blamed the Abkhaz separatist government and the Russians."

European Union monitors and police were in the village on Saturday investigating a home which had suffered a grenade attack.

Three grenades had been launched at the home early on Saturday and after officials arrived a few hours later a remote controlled bomb was set off.

Shota Utiashvili, an interior ministry spokesman, told the AFP news agency: "This was clearly aimed at the police because they knew the police would go there to investigate."

The village was the location of a Russian checkpoint during the war with Georgia in August, before Russia withdrew its troops.

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