Georgia's ex-communist allies slam French peace plan

(WARSAW) - The leaders of four ex-communist EU states on Wednesday slammed a plan by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to end Moscow's conflict with Tbilisi, saying it failed to protect their ally Georgia.

"We feel that, in the documents presented last night both in Moscow and in Tbilisi, the principal element, the respect of the territorial integrity of Georgia, is missing," Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said, reading a joint statement alongside the leaders of Poland, Latvia and Estonia.

The statement underlined their "full support for the territorial integrity of Georgia within internationally-recognised borders."

Earlier Wednesday in Georgia, Poland's President Lech Kaczynski had blasted a six-point peace plan negotiated with Russia by Sarkozy, whose country is at the helm of the 27-nation EU, saying it failed to mention the need to respect Georgia's frontiers, which have been a source of conflict ever since the country broke from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.

In what appeared to be a further swipe at Sarkozy, the statement issued by the five leaders also comprised six points.

It demanded that the West swing solidly behind Georgia.

"The only option to prevent similar acts of aggression and occupation against Georgia in the future is to give them a NATO Membership Action Plan," it said.

Such a plan is the first step on the road to membership of the trans-Atlantic alliance, but does not guarantee it.

Poland, which broke free from Moscow in 1989, and the Baltic states, which like Georgia were part of the Soviet Union until 1991, are all staunch allies of Tbilisi.

"Those countries who value freedom and democracy must stand up for it whenever it is threatened. And I see that as a special mission for all those of us who have suffered under totalitarian domination," Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said.

All four countries are now solidly anchored in the West.

Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004, while the Baltic states became members of both in 2004, and back Georgia's efforts to do likewise, in the face of stiff opposition from their Soviet-era master Moscow.

Georgia and Ukraine's NATO drive is also strongly supported by Washington, but many west European nations are by contrast wary of letting Georgia into the 26-nation alliance, fearing it could get dragged into a conflict with Russia.

Adamkus, Kaczynski, Ilves and Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis had travelled to Georgia on Tuesday with Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko in a show of support for the country's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Fighting between Georgia and Russia broke out last week after the Georgian army launched an offensive to bring South Ossetia, which broke away in the early 1990s, back under government control.

Russian troops have since driven Georgia forces out of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, which like South Ossetia is run by pro-Russian separatists.

Russia on Tuesday said it was halting its offensive, but Russian forces continue to occupy Georgian territory outwith South Ossetia, and have bombed military targets across the country, according to Georgian officials.

In Warsaw, the four leaders demanded "an immediate ceasefire, the end of aggression and of the further occupation of sovereign, democratic Georgia," and called for the withdrawal of "occupation" troops and the creation of an "international peace corps supervised by the European Union."

They also called for the "establishment of humanitarian corridors" to aid victims of "Russian aggression."