Tycoon fears assassination plot

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Badri Patarkatsishvili, who is running for the presidency of the former Soviet republic next month, said he did not feel safe returning to the country.

A tape recording has surfaced of a conversation said to have taken place between an official from the Georgian interior ministry and a possible hitman, which Mr Patarkatsishvili said he took "seriously".

The Sunday Times, which put the recording - in Russian - on its website, said the two men discussed two options for making Mr Patarkatsishvili "disappear completely".

One, which bore similarities to the murder of ex-KBG agent Alexander Litvinenko in London last year, involved murdering the tycoon during one of his regular visits to the capital.

The other was to kill him as he flew in his private aeroplane to his castle in southern Georgia.

Mr Patarkatsishvili, who is standing as the main opposition candidate to President Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia's elections in January, said: "I appeal to the authorities of Georgia to start an immediate investigation into this matter and hold those behind the plot accountable for their actions.

"If the authorities fail to respond to this urgent appeal and do not take appropriate steps, they will be held responsible for that."

The Sunday Times reported that Mr Patarkatsishvili, who has a home in the UK, had hired a London law firm that employs the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith.

Lord Goldsmith told the newspaper that he had not heard the tape, and so could not vouch for its credibility, but said Mr Patarkatsishvili took it seriously and has asked for the police to be informed.