  The sawtooth chain with pairs of $S=1/2$ spins interacting with
$XXZ$-interactions placed on each second tooth is considered. All other
interaction bonds are taken to be of Ising type. Exact statistical mechanical
solution of the model within the direct transfer-matrix technique is obtained.
The solution allows one to obtain exact analytic expressions for all
thermodynamic functions of the model. Ground stated properties are also
investigated, the corresponding ground state phase diagram is presented.
