By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it wants representatives of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region to have the chance to address the U.N. Security Council but Western diplomats said they opposed the idea.

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, also told reporters the Security Council had accepted a Georgian request that it discuss a U.N. report that Russia shot down a Georgian drone over Abkhazia last month. The council meeting on the report will take place on Friday, he said.

Russia denies any involvement in shooting the unmanned aircraft, which was brought down on April 20 over Abkhazia, a Moscow-backed separatist region of Georgia.

"We expressed our disappointment that there is no possibility to invite the Abkhazian side to this discussion," Churkin told reporters. "Without their participation it cannot be objective, full or comprehensive and serious."

Churkin told reporters after a Security Council meeting that Friday's discussion would be "lopsided" without the Abkhazians though he expected they would be invited to the next council session on Georgia in two months time.

"I sense that there is much stronger support for this, because it is now beginning to sink in ... that it's very illogical for the Security Council to be discussing for years a conflict situation with two parties without having an opportunity ... to listen to the other party," he said.

NO FIRM AGREEMENT

Georgia's U.N. Ambassador, Irakli Alasania, told reporters Russia's proposal was "fundamentally in breach of the existing arrangements under the U.N.-led Geneva peace process." He was referring to the Geneva peace talks that ended the civil war.

Another council diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was no firm agreement that Abkhazia would attend the council meeting on Georgia in July.

"We agreed to consider it, that's all," he said.

Another Western diplomat said allowing Abkhazia to appear before the council would be an unofficial recognition of its independence, which Georgia and its Western allies oppose.

The U.N. report also said Georgia was violating a cease-fire agreement by flying reconnaissance flights over Abkhazia but Georgia's envoy said recent events justified the flights.

"Recent executive actions of Russia and hostile separatist statements forced us to utilize unarmed national intelligence capabilities in order to collect vital data," Alasania said.

Churkin dismissed Alasania's remarks as "illogical and strange."

Last month Russia announced it would establish legal links with neighboring Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a move Georgia condemned as a breach of international law.

Western states are closely allied to Georgia and also suspect Russia of trying to punish the small Caucasus state for its bid to join NATO. They say it also may be linked to the February declaration of independence by the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo, which both Russia and Serbia opposed. (Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip) (Editing by Bill Trott)

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