Thursday, February 3 2005 20:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tbilisi: Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, a young and well-respected figure seen as the driving force behind market-oriented economic reform in the restive Caucasus republic, died in Tbilisi today (Feb 3, 2005) apparently after suffocating from gas leaked by a faulty heater, officials said.

Zhvania, 41, was found by his bodyguards slumped over a table in an apartment on the outskirts of Tbilisi, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told reporters.

The body of another local Georgian official, Raul Yusupov, was found on the floor in another room in the apartment.

There were no signs of foul play and officials quickly quashed suspicions that the deaths could have been anything but accidental.

"This was apparently an accident," Merabishvili said. A preliminary investigation indicated that an incorrectly installed exhaust pipe on a heating unit in the apartment caused a leak of poison fumes and said, "It seems clear" that this was the cause of the deaths.

The Georgian State prosecutor's office said it had opened a criminal investigation into the deaths but added there were no indications they were caused by violence, Interfax news agency said.

Zhvania's body "shows signs of poisoning from carbon gas," the agency quoted the country's deputy prosecutor general, Georgy Dzhanashvili, as saying.