TBILISI, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - South Ossetian authorities said Wednesday that Georgian forces had opened fire on two villages in the breakaway region to seize control of a strategically important road, but Tbilisi denied the report.

'The gunfire is coming from sniper rifles and high-calibre automatic weapons' near the villages of Mugut and Didmukha, the region's self-styled defence ministry said in a statement on a web site for separatist authorities.

The statement described the attacks as an attempt to retake several villages in South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in a war in the early 1990s but whose independence is unrecognised by any other state.

A Georgian official denied the claim, as well as a Russian media report quoting peacekeeping forces as saying that military jets had been spotted flying over the volatile mountain province from Georgia.

'The South Ossetian side is trying to create an illusion of serious escalation, an illusion of war, while in fact the situation is quite calm in the conflict zone,' Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP.

Earlier, a spokesman for Russian peacekeepers in the region was quoted as saying that eight military jets had been seen flying over South Ossetia earlier Wednesday in violation of previous peace agreements.

'The appearance of military planes over the conflict zone is a gross violation,' spokesman Vladimir Ivanov told the Interfax news agency.

Hundreds of women and children have been evacuated from South Ossetia in the past week in preparation for a possible conflict, separatist officials said.

Tensions over South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, have soared in recent months ever since Moscow announced it was boosting ties with the separatists.

Russia has given tacit support to South Ossetia, including granting citizenship to most of the region's residents.