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Tbilisi: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia yesterday to help resolve tension in Georgia's rebel regions rather than "contributing to it".
Rice was in Tbilisi in a show of support for Georgia, an ex-Soviet state which wants to join Nato and is at the centre of a tussle for influence between the United States and Russia in the strategic south Caucasus.
Locked in
Georgia's pro-Western government is locked in a confrontation with former imperial master Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway regions backed by Moscow and where Russian troops are deployed.
Russia accuses Georgia of fuelling tension in the region and says its role -which has included sending in extra troops this year - has been to defend local people from Georgian aggression.
"Russia needs to be a part of solving the problem and not contributing to it," Rice said. "I have said it to the Russians publicly. I have said it privately."
"The violence needs to stop and whoever is perpetrating it, and I have mentioned this to the president" she told a joint news conference with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
A day before Rice arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia alleged Russian fighter jets had trespassed into its airspace in an attempt to thwart her visit. Russia did not comment on the Georgian allegation.
In the worst violence in months, a bomb in a cafe in Abkhazia killed four people on Sunday and separatists in South Ossetia said two people were killed last week in a heavy exchange of fire with Georgian forces. Russia said there was strong evidence Georgia's government was behind the violence, though Tbilisi denied that.
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