Georgia sent tanks to put down a rebellion at a military base near the capital Tbilisi yesterday and the government accused Russia of financing a coup, a charge Moscow denied.

President Mikheil Saakashvili called the rebellion a "serious threat" but said the mutineers were isolated.

About 45 minutes later, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told Reuters by telephone from the Mukhrovani tank base that the rebellion was over and the base commander had been arrested.

President Saakashvili accused the plotters of links to Moscow and demanded that Russia "refrain from provocations". Georgia lost a brief war against neighbouring Russia last August over the rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia's envoy to Nato Dmitry Rogozin said Mr Saakashvili, who is facing growing opposition protests demanding his resignation, was trying to blame Moscow for his own domestic problems.

Police kept reporters at a distance from the mutinous base. It was not clear how many of the several hundred troops stationed there supported the uprising.

Earlier, Russia's Interfax news agency said Mukhrovani base commander Mamuka Gorgishvili had made a statement criticising Mr Saakashvili's government but pledging not to use force.

"One cannot look calmly at the process of the country falling apart, at the ongoing confrontation. But our tank unit will not resort to any aggressive actions," the agency quoted Commander Gorgishvili as saying.

A Reuters reporter saw around 30 tanks and armoured personnel carriers moving along the main road from Tbilisi towards the base.

President Saakashvili has been under pressure domestically since the war with Russia.

Military experts in Tbilisi suggested the rebellion could be linked with government plans to use troops to end weeks of opposition road blocks, and that some officers had refused to participate.

"This chimes with what we are hearing from military sources," a senior Western diplomat said when asked about these suggestions.