Russia denies breaking ceasefire deal in Georgia

GEORGIA:RUSSIA HAS rejected western claims that it was breaking a ceasefire deal by maintaining military checkpoints deep inside Georgia.

Having driven the strategic Black Sea state's military far from the separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia is accused by officials in Tbilisi of seeking to oust its pro-western leadership and wreck the nation's bid to join Nato and its fast-growing economy.

On a day marked by heightened tension a US warship docked off the Georgian port of Batumi, 50km south of Poti, to deliver aid.

The USS McFaul unloaded 55 tonnes of food, bottled water and beds for tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting that erupted on August 7th-8th, when Russian forces flooded into South Ossetia to halt Tbilisi's attempt to regain control of a region that broke free in a 1991-1992 war.

The aid arrived as Georgia blamed Russia for causing an explosion which derailed a fuel train near the central town of Gori, blocking a key route for goods crossing the region, and lambasted Moscow for retaining control of the busy port of Poti.

Poti can handle 100,000 barrels of oil products per day from Azerbaijan, many of which arrive by rail along the route that was blocked by the train wreck.

The incident underscored the fragility of western hopes that Georgia will serve as a major export route for Caspian Sea oil and gas, which could help wean the US and EU off Russian energy.

Russia withdrew many tanks and troops from Georgia on Friday, but ignored calls from Washington, Paris and Berlin to remove soldiers from Poti and other areas. Moscow insisted that a vague ceasefire deal, brokered by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, allowed it to keep "peacekeepers" in so-called buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"According to all our information, they have not withdrawn in the manner agreed," German chancellor Angela Merkel said last night.

France, holder of the EU presidency, called for a meeting of European leaders on September 1st to discuss the crisis in Georgia and EU relations with Russia.

After a telephone conversation on Saturday between Mr Sarkozy and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, officials in Moscow denied the French leader's claim that the Kremlin would allow monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to replace Russian troops in the buffer zones.

Two other US ships are due to follow the USS McFaul to Batumi, in a show of Washington's support for its main ally in a vital strategic region.

"The United States is our great friend," said Georgian defence minister David Kezerashvili. "They have arrived at such a difficult time. It means we are not alone."

Washington made clear that Georgia's bid to join Nato has not been scuttled by this month's conflict.

"I think what Russia has done now is the strongest catalyst it could have created to get Georgia into Nato," said Matthew Bryza, senior US envoy to the Caucasus.