By Sami Torma

HELSINKI, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is trying to find the answer to his country's separatist strife in the unlikeliest of places: a cluster of tiny islands in the Baltic Sea.

Saakashvili will travel on Friday to the Aland archipelago, thousands of kilometres (miles) from his ex-Soviet state in the Caucasus mountains, to study the islands' special status as an autonomous province of Finland.

He said his hope is that the Aland islands could provide a model for the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian control in fighting in the 1990s, to peacefully co-exist with Georgia.

"We are going ... to the Aland islands to see the autonomy model," Saakashvili, a U.S.-trained lawyer who swept to power in a 2003 bloodless revolution, told reporters during a visit to Helsinki.

"I've been fascinated by the thing with Aland," he said. "Georgia's multi-ethnicity is not a weakness in any way. Through the visit to Aland with journalists, what we want to do is to show our population that it is possible."

The Swedish-speaking islands, which have a population of 26,200 people, were ceded from Sweden to Finland at the start of the 19th century. Early last century, the islanders tried to secede from Finland.

The dispute was resolved by a deal under which Finland retained sovereignty but gave the islands a large degree of autonomy: they have their own flag and postage stamps and Finland is barred from stationing troops or weapons there.

Academics who study possible solutions to the former Soviet Union's so-called "frozen conflicts" -- including Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- often cite the islands as a case study.

EXAMPLE FOR WORLD

"There is a lot of international interest in the Aland solution as an example for the rest of the world," Susanne Eriksson, Deputy Secretary General of the Parliament of Aland, told Reuters on Thursday.

Tension in Georgia's rebel regions often spills over into skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops. The conflicts are also a source of friction between Georgia and its big neighbour Russia, which props up the separatists.

The conflicts could flare up again if major powers recognise the independence of Serbia's Kosovo province: the separatists and Russia say that would be a legal precedent for Abkhazia and South Ossetia to win their independence.

Saakashvili is offering the rebel regions, whose population are ethnically distinct from Georgians, a large degree of autonomy if they drop their push for independence.

Irina Gagloyeva, chief spokeswoman for South Ossetia's separatist government, said her region had no faith in Saakashvili's offers and that he was making a wasted trip.

"If he stopped making proposals just for effect, and offered a solution that really took into account the interests of the Ossetian people, he would not need to search around for models. Then he could just travel as a tourist," she said.

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