Protesters threw stones at the policemen at the construction site of a controversial section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline near Georgia's Borjomi valley, the official said.

Two policemen were injured in similar clashes earlier this month, days after the Georgian government gave the go-ahead for the construction work to resume.

When completed, the BTC pipeline will pump up to one million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian Sea, through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to a tanker terminal at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The project will cost around three billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) to complete and is being led by British oil giant BP, with backing from the US government.

Environmental lobby groups have expressed concerns that the pipeline is an ecological risk, saying that an oil spill where it runs near the Borjomi valley, the site of world-renowned mineral water springs, could have disastrous consequences.

BP insists that the pipeline meets internationally-accepted safety standards and points to extra safeguards built in at the Borjomi section.

Construction work had been halted for two weeks over environmental concerns before Georgia's government gave the go-ahead for its resumption early this month.

The pipeline is scheduled to deliver the first oil to Ceyhan by the second half of next year.

TERRA.WIRE