File Photo: Aslan Abashidze

    MOSCOW, May 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Aslan Abashidze, head of Georgia's rebellious Adzharian region, resigned on Thursday, preventing a crisis from boiling into a civil war in the Black Sea country.

    Abashidze's resignation was announced by Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania hours after a senior Russian envoy helped meditate in the standoff between Abashidze and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

    Abashidze has left for Moscow along with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov, who arrived in the Adzharian capital of Batumi late Wednesday to hold negotiations with the rebel leader.

    Ivanov's mission had been arranged earlier Wednesday during telephone conversations initiated by Saakashvili asking for help from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to solve the escalating crisis.

    Saakashvili immediately hailed Abashidze's resignation on early Thursday, describing it "an important step on the way to Georgia'sunification," according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

    In a televised address to the nation, Saakashvili pointed out that the resignation of Abashidze "is a great victory for residents of Adzharia and other regions of Georgia. Adzharia has freed itself from Abashidze."

    "With the resignation of Abashidze, a new epoch begins not onlyin the lives of the residents of the autonomous republic, but in Georgia as a whole, an epoch of democracy, of peace, an epoch of real unity," Saakashvili said.

    Jubilant protesters who had been staging rallies over the previous three days to demand the resignation of Abashidze celebrated their victory in the streets of Batumi along with tens of thousands of local residents.

    The crisis between Saakashvili and Abashidze was aggravated by the renegade local leader's order on Sunday to destroy bridges andrailways linking the region to the rest of the country. Abashidze claimed that the moves were taken to prevent possible military invasion by forces of the central authorities, which had vowed to take Adzharia back under control.

    The 36-year-old Saakashvili declared an ultimatum immediately after Abashidze's weekend actions, urging him to disband illegal local militia and bow to Tbilisi before May 12. The president warned that new elections would be announced in Adzharia if Abashidze failed to give in.

    Saakashvili on Wednesday declared direct presidential rule over Adzharia during the transitional period till fresh elections were held in the region.

    He assured Abashidze and his family of complete life security and promised to allow him to leave for any foreign country if he voluntarily resigned.

    But Abashidze, 65, had at first rejected the offer, saying he would not step down or leave Adzharia.

    Both the United States and Russia had shown deep concern over the latest tensions in Adzharia.

    US Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles had vowed to mediate in the dispute along with the international community and try to peacefully settle the mounting tensions in Georgia, across which ahuge US-backed oil pipeline is built to transport Caspian Sea crude to the Western market.

    Russia, retaining two military bases in Georgia, had warned Tbilisi that solving the dispute by force would inevitably lead tothe most severe consequences.

    The peaceful settlement of the latest standoff between Tbilisi and Adzharia resembles the "Rose Revolution" that forced Georgia'sex-President Eduard Shevardnadze to step down late last year.

    Ivanov, a former Russian foreign minister, also went to Tbilisiat a critical time on a mediating mission amid protests spearheaded by Saakashvili to demand the resignation of Shevardnadze.

    The simmering feud between Saakashvili and Abashidze erupted in March when the president was denied entry into the province by the local leader's militia. The crisis however subsided after Abashidze agreed to a compromise but the tensions had gradually increased as Tbilisi accused Adzharia of reneging on the agreement.

    Adzharia, a semi-autonomous region in the southwestern part of Georgia, has been enjoying economic autonomy since the 1990s.

    Keeping its own armed forces, Abashidze was strongly defiant ofthe regime of Saakashvili, who came to power early this year afterwinning a landslide victory in the election.

    Abashidze served as chairman of the Supreme Council of Adzharia between 1991 and 2001 and was elected head of the region in late 2001.

    During Abashidze's decade-long rule, local opposition forces and Georgia's central authorities criticized him for breaking the country's constitution, actual insubordination to central authorities and persecution of political opponents.

    Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer, has vowed to reunite the country that sees three of its republics -- Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Adzharia -- move beyond the control of the central authorities. Enditem