TBILISI, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's president said Georgia fully controlled the Kodori Gorge.

"Today, Georgia made a serious step forward and restored full control over the territory of Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge for the first time in the past 13 years," Mikheil Saakashvili said.

Georgia started what it termed an anticrime operation the area of its breakaway region Abkhazia after former presidential envoy Emzar Kvitsiani, a militia leader, said on Sunday he did not recognize Tbilisi's rule.

Georgian presidential chief of staff Giorgi Arveladze said the operation had been successful although Kvitsiani and his supporters had managed to escape, and that the Interior Ministry would give a reward of $55,000 for information leading to the capture of Kvitsiani.