(ROME) - Divisions over the crisis in Georgia has pointed up a weakness in the European Union, former Polish president Lech Walesa said in an interview publshed Wednesday.

The conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia "is a problem that reveals Europe's Achille's heel," Walesa told the Corriere della Sera daily.

"You cannot have the (EU) presidency (France) act in one way and other heads of state go in the opposite direction," Walesa said, referring to a visit to Tbilisi last week by the pro-Georgia leaders of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

They said a peace plan proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not provide sufficient protection for Georgia.

Russia "will end up weakened" by the conflict only if Western countries can show "international solidarity," said Walesa, who founded Poland's anti-communist Solidarity trade union movement in 1980.

Walesa added that Russia, "with its provocative attitude, has lost a great deal of respect in the West, and the more they drag their feet (on withdrawing from Georgia), the more their image will suffer."

Commenting on a deal to deploy part of a US missile shield on Polish territory, signed in Warsaw on Wednesday, Walesa said it would be "beneficial for the economy and the security" of his country.

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.