The leader of Abkhazia said Wednesday he had ordered the destruction of any Georgian ship violating the de-facto sea borders of Georgia's rebel region in a growing row over shipping in the region.

"I have given the order to our naval forces to destroy Georgian ships infringing the sea border of Abkhazia," Sergei Bagapsh told the Interfax news agency in an interview.

"This step has been caused by the constant acts of piracy from the Georgian side," he added.

There have been increased tensions over Georgia's bid to enforce a naval blockade of Abkhazia after it seized last month a Turkish ship carrying fuel from Turkey to the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi.

The captain of the cargo ship Buket Mehmet Coskun Ozturk was found guilty by a Georgian court of "smuggling and violation of Georgia's law on occupied territories" and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Bagapsh angrily compared the actions of the Georgian military forces with those of Somali pirates who seized ships off the Horn of Africa.

"Unfortunately, we can talk about Georgian pirates in the same way as we can talk about Somalian pirates. And such actions must be followed by an adequate answer," he added.

The Abkhaz border guard chief Zurab Marganiya said last week that Russian border guards would help protect ships bound for Abkhazia. But Bagapsh said that only Abkhaz forces would be involved.

"I want to emphasise that we are talking exclusively about the Abkhaz navy. No Russian military forces are being employed or will be employed in solving the current question."