(PARIS) - Some EU states are considering imposing sanctions on Russia when they hold an emergency summit next week on the Georgian crisis, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Thursday.

"Sanctions are being considered, and many other means" at next Monday's meeting in Brussels, said Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union presidency.

It was the first time that Paris evoked the possibility of sanctions against Moscow.

"We are trying to draw up a strong text showing our desire not to accept" the situation in Georgia, he told reporters.

He said he did not want to "prefigure" what the sanctions might be and that it was the role of France as holder of the EU presidency to forge a common united front on the Georgia crisis.

Kouchner said in a later interview with Europe 1 radio, however, that France was not planning sanctions.

"I simply said that some countries were thinking of sanctions. France is not thinking of them," he said

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shrugged off the threat of sanctions, saying it was made "just because they're upset that the 'little pet' of certain Western capitals didn't fulfill their expectations."

Lavrov suggested the French foreign minister had a "sick imagination" after Kouchner argued Wednesday that Moscow might have designs on Ukraine, Crimea and Moldova.

Russia is facing an avalanche of condemnation from the West over its decision to recognise the independence of two Georgian secessionist regions at the heart of the conflict that erupted in the ex-Soviet republic this month.

Moscow has reacted angrily to Western criticism, saying it fails to recognise that Moscow used military force only in response to a Georgian attack against South Ossetia, where tens of thousands of Russian citizens live.

Extraordinary European Council meeting on the situation in Georgia

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.