Western powers denounce Russian stance on conflict

GEORGIA:RUSSIA AND the West fought a diplomatic battle stretching from Washington to Central Asia yesterday as they sought to secure political backing for their sharply conflicting positions on Georgia.

The White House and major European governments again lambasted Moscow for failing to withdraw fully troops from the strategic Caucasus state, while Russian president Dmitry Medvedev met Chinese and ex-Soviet leaders in remote Tajikistan.

US president George Bush demanded that Russia reverse its "irresponsible decision" to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which he claimed "only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations".

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Russia's move was "simply unacceptable".

"The outcome [of this crisis] will define the long-term relations of the European Union with Russia," he added.

British foreign secretary David Miliband was in Ukraine to meet president Viktor Yushchenko for talks on forming the "widest possible coalition against Russian aggression".

"The Russian president says he is not afraid of a new Cold War. We don't want one. He has a big responsibility not to start one," Mr Miliband said, amid fears that an increasingly prickly Moscow could stoke dissent in Ukraine's largely ethnic-Russian Crimea region, home of the Kremlin's Black Sea naval fleet. "The decision taken by the Russian leaders constitutes a threat to peace and stability in our region and in Europe," said Mr Yushchenko, who, like Georgia's leaders, lobbied in vain for an invitation to join Nato in April.

German chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned Russia's policy in Georgia in a half-hour telephone conversation with Mr Medvedev. "The chancellor . . . sharply criticised Russia's decision yesterday to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," said her spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm.

Dr Merkel told Mr Medvedev that the "continued Russian presence in Georgia outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia . . . is a serious breach of the agreements" and that "Russia must withdraw immediately to the positions of August 7th", when Moscow's forces flooded into South Ossetia to halt a Georgian bid to reassert control over the region.

Russia remained steadfast, however, as Mr Medvedev sought support from leaders of China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states in Tajikistan.

Mr Medvedev "informed" Chinese president Hu Jintao about the situation in the Caucasus, the Kremlin said. Chinese officials, who claim sovereignty over Taiwan and have separatist worries in Tibet and the Xinjiang region, declined to comment.

"The moralising that we hear from our western colleagues is not based on facts," said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who rejected threats to curtail Moscow's co-operation with the EU, Nato, the G8 and World Trade Organisation.