(MOSCOW) - Georgia's separatist region of Abkhazia Monday rejected a plan to settle the conflict with Tbilisi, offered by the UN Group of Friends of the Secretary General, Russian agencies reported.

"I have read the settlement plan prepared by the UN secretary general's Group of Friends. We cannot consider it, such as it was presented today," Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh said quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency during talks with EU representative in South Caucasus, Peter Semneby.

The project had been transmitted to the Abkhaz leader by German diplomat Hans-Dieter Lucas, but its contents are still not known to the public.

"We do not intend to discuss Abkhazia's political status with anyone. We are constructing an independent and democratic state," Bagapsh said as quoted by Interfax.

Abkhazia has enjoyed de facto independence from Tbilisi since a bloody conflict in the early 1990s, but its self-declared government is not formally recognized by any other state.

Tensions have mounted this month with a series of bomb attacks in Abkhazia, the arrest by another separatist republic, South Ossetia, of four Georgian soldiers and flights over South Ossetia by Russia's air force, which Moscow says are needed to prevent "bloodshed."

The US embassy in Georgia Monday voiced "dismay at the recent escalation of violence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and calls upon all sides to return to direct negotiations and resolve their differences peacefully," its statement read.

"The United States fully supports and is actively engaged in the Friends of the Secretary General process and believes that the efforts of the Friends group will lead to a settlement of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia," the embassy added.

The UN Group of Friends of the Secretary General comprises Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.