TBILISI. March 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgia's leadership has no information about terrorists developing chemical and biological weapons in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said on Tuesday.
"Over the last year, no foreign secret service has given us information on terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge developing biological and chemical weapons," he said.
Merabishvili was commenting on a statement by French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, who said that terrorists experimented with biological weapons in the Pankisi Gorge.
Some al-Qaeda groups were trained in Afghanistan where they learned how to use anthrax, ricin and botulism toxins, de Villepin said on Tuesday. Later, after the Taliban's defeat, these groups proceeded with their experiments in the Pankisi Gorge, he said.
De Villepin said this took place in 2000-2002, and secret services of various countries knew about it, Merabishvili said. "In 2002, a counter-terrorist operation held in the Pankisi Gorge in cooperation with the United States solved all the problems," he said.
The Pankisi Gorge is fully controlled by Georgian law enforcement agencies, he said.