TBILISI - If in the next two days Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze does not cede control of the customs services in Sarpi and the port of Batumi to the legally empowered president, sanctions will once again be imposed on the autonomous republic, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told a Rosbalt correspondent Monday. 'Everyone already understands that we're not joking,' Saakashvili said.

As expected, the escalation of tensions between Batumi and Tbilisi has not eased. Control of the customs services by presidential representatives in Sarpi, on the Turkish border, and in the port of Batumi had been agreed to earlier at a meeting in Batumi between Abashidze and Saakashvili, but Abashidze later announced that in the absence of any discussion with him regarding the candidacy of such representatives, solitary control would not be granted.

According to Abashidze, one of Saakashvili's proposed representatives has a criminal record. In addition, he has demanded that joint control of the customs services be maintained on the Georgian-Turkish border in Vale (south Georgia), and in the port of Poti.

The Adjarian leader said that in those places, at least 80% of the goods crossing the frontier are not controlled by customs, as a result of which the Georgian central budget has been incurring heavy losses. Abashidze has in turn threatened to delay the lifting of the emergency situation currently prevailing in Adjaria.