West ramps up pressure for solution on Abkhazia

(TBILISI) - Western powers ramped up pressure for a solution to Georgia's stand-off with Russia over separatist Abkhazia Thursday, as a top EU official visited the region and a US envoy criticised Moscow.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said during a visit to Georgia that he hoped to "decrease the temperature of tensions" during talks with Georgian and Abkhaz officials.

Solana, who was due to travel to Abkhazia on Friday, told journalists one of the issues up for discussion would be "changing the peacekeeping operations format" in Abkhazia, where more than 2,000 Russian troops are deployed.

Georgia accuses the Russian peacekeepers of backing Abkhaz rebels and has called for them to be replaced by an international force.

Solana said "any change of this structure must be agreed to by the parties of the conflict."

After meeting with Solana, President Mikheil Saakashvili said Georgia was "ready to reach out to Russia" but that Moscow first had to withdraw recent decisions to establish formal ties with the Abkhaz separatists and send additional peacekeeping troops to the region.

Saakashvili also called for Europe to play a stronger role in negotiating a peace deal.

"We need European Union involvement in the resolution of the conflict," he said.

In Moscow, meanwhile, a senior US diplomat said the recent deployment of extra Russian troops in Abkhazia was complicating efforts to resolve the conflict.

"Just at the moment when we were close to a breakthrough, in a positive sense, the increase of Russia's military presence complicated the situation," US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said in an interview, published by Interfax in Russian.

Bryza also warned that war in Abkhazia would threaten Russia's holding of the 2014 Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi, across the Russian side of the mountainous border with Georgia.

Bryza made clear his frustration at the latest deployment of a unit of Russian railway troops to Abkhazia, which Moscow announced last Saturday.

"No consultations with the Georgian government were conducted. There were no agreements that would allow a unilateral deployment of armed forces on sovereign Georgian territory.

"These are not peacekeepers, but military builders. There is no legal basis for this," he said, referring to the railway troops, which Moscow says are repairing railways in the territory.

Tensions surrounding Abkhazia have soared since Moscow announced in April that it was establishing formal ties with the separatists. Russia has also sent hundreds of extra peacekeeping troops into Abkhazia, saying that Georgia was preparing an assault.

Western pressure has been building on Russia in recent weeks since Saakashvili said his country had come close to war with Russia over Abkhazia.

A respected think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), warned in a statement released Thursday that increasing tensions over Abkhazia threatened to explode into war.

"Moscow and Tbilisi need to cease military preparations in and around Abkhazia and cool their rhetoric lest their increasingly dangerous confrontation brings war to the Caucasus," the group said.

It called for Western governments to push for a peaceful solution, persuade Russia to withdraw its new troops from the region and give the EU a stronger role in negotiating a settlement.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was due to meet Saakashvili in Saint Petersburg on Friday.

Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia, broke from Georgian control during wars in the early 1990s that left thousands dead and forced tens of thousands from their homes.