The Secretary-General of Nato, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, added "such actions serve no purpose other than to exacerbate tensions in the South Caucasus region".

But separatist campaigners say they have a right to self-determination and that there is little difference between the situation there and in the disputed Balkan province of Kosovo, which is expected to win a measure of independence from Serbia in a UN-approved vote next year.

Alongside Abkhazia, another breakaway region in Georgia, South Ossetia, with its mixed population of Georgians, Russians and Ossetians, who claim their own ethnic identity and language, has been at the heart of the recent breakdown of relations between Georgia and Russia.

Georgia's pro-Western President, Mikhail Saakashvili, has promised to bring South Ossetia firmly under the control of his Government in Tbilisi by 2008 and accused Moscow of supporting the province's drive for independence, sending money and weapons and granting Ossetians Russian passports and pensions.

"When a neighbouring state tries to grab a part of your territory, for us it is a red line," Georgia's Foreign Minister, Gela Bezhuashvili, said earlier this month.

Moscow denies meddling in the affairs of the province, which is separated only by a line of mountains from the Russian province of North Ossetia, but closed its border with Georgia after the country expelled four men it claimed were Russian spies in September.

Since then Moscow has imposed a blockade of communications, wine and mineral water on Georgia, and threatened to double the price of its gas exports to the country.

Hundreds of Georgians living in Russia have also been rounded up and deported because of what Russian officials have described as immigration violations.

With Abkhazia also reaching out to Moscow for recognition, Russian MPs have encouraged independence for the two provinces, claiming that the Kosovo vote could set a precedent for small, want-away republics.

In October, Sergei Baburin, the deputy speaker of Russia's State Duma, said that the Kosovo referendum, which is expected to take place early next year after Serbian elections, could trigger a "chain reaction" of similar votes.

Officials in the provincial capital of Tskhinvali said that 55,000 people voted in yesterday's election, a turnout of nearly 95 per cent of eligible voters in South Ossetia, which has a population of around 100,000.

Preliminary results showed 99 per cent of voters approved independence, said Bella Pliyeva, the head of the electoral commission.

In a simultaneous vote, 96 per cent of voters re-elected the province's president, Eduard Kokoity, Ms Pliyeva said.

Pro-independence campaigners could be seen walking the streets of Tskhinvali today, wearing the yellow-red-and-white flag of Ossetia and dancing traditional dances. Although the Russian Government has no official ties with the South Ossetian leadership, several Russian MPs were in the city today.

"We need to move towards recognising reality," said Konstantin Zatulin, a member of the Duma who said he came to observe the independence vote.

"South Ossetia is a reality, like Transdnestr, Abkhazia and Nagorny Karabakh," he added, naming other regions with disputed ties to Russia.

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