By Stephen Mulvey BBC News Online

The kidnap of a Briton in Georgia has once again highlighted the many problems facing the Caucasus region.

From rampant crime and corruption to smouldering armed conflicts capable of erupting again at any moment.

Like its neighbours, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia is awash with guns.

These are not just for decoration - they are used for settling scores, exerting pressure on business rivals, and occasionally for armed crime.

It is a risky place to do business, and a bad place to make enemies, or just to run out of luck.

The kidnapping threat is worst in the north Caucasus - in Chechnya and its neighbours, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

Notorious areas

Feuding families frequently take hostages - sometimes children - in order to wring concessions from the enemy camp. Wealthy visitors can also be held for ransom.

Spaniard Antonio Tremino was tied by the neck to another hostage

There are rare cases of kidnapping in the south Caucasus too - and of the three countries, Georgia has the worst record.

There have been repeated cases in the breakaway region of Abkhazia, which is beyond the control of the Georgian authorities.

Within Abkhazia itself, the most notorious area is the Kodori gorge, which is beyond the writ of the Abkhaz authorities too.

It is an area completely beyond the law, and one where UN peacekeepers go missing on a regular basis.

The other main blackspot is the Pankisi gorge, north-east of the capital, Tbilisi, currently a no-go area for Georgian police and soldiers.

Drug-smuggling

The gorge is home to a small population of ethnic Chechen Georgian citizens, known as Kists, and to some 2,000 Chechen refugees, including an estimated 200 resting Chechen fighters.

Since their arrival, the gorge has increasingly become a centre of drug-smuggling and gun-running.

Aid workers have been taken hostage and businessmen kidnapped elsewhere in Georgia, have been held there in appalling conditions.

There have been cases of Russians being seized and forced to work as slaves.

Police role

What nobody knows is how far criminals there are working in league with law enforcement officials.

It has been claimed that police take a cut of the smugglers' profits - or the ransom paid to free hostages.

Two Spanish businessmen kidnapped on their way to Tbilisi airport were freed after a year in captivity only when two key ministers were replaced in a government reshuffle.

According to a former justice minister, now a leading opposition figure, the Spaniards had to pay two ransoms because the first was pocketed by corrupt officials.

The US army is currently training Georgian officers in anti-terrorist operations, which may enable them eventually to restore law and order in the Pankisi Gorge.