GEORGIA:French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner flew to Tbilisi yesterday on an EU mission to mediate an end to the conflict in Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region, which was under Russian control after Georgian forces retreated.
Russian news agencies reported that French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency, would also this week travel to Russia as part of international efforts to end the fighting.
"The president believes that there now exists a real chance of quickly finding a way out of the crisis," following the retreat of Georgian forces from the region, Mr Sarkozy's office said in a statement.
Russian news agencies quoted Russian president Dmitry Medvedev yesterday as telling the French leader in a telephone conversation that Tbilisi should immediately sign a formal pledge not to attack South Ossetia.
Mr Sarkozy, who also spoke to Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili and other world leaders yesterday, believed a pledge not to engage in violence in the future would help facilitate a solution in the short-term, the presidency statement said. It would also help make a ceasefire sustainable, it added.
Mr Kouchner's arrival late yesterday made him the first senior international figure to fly to the Georgian capital since the three-day conflict in breakaway South Ossetia erupted. He went straight to a meeting with Mr Saakashvili.
Hours before Mr Kouchner's arrival, a bomb dropped by a Russian jet exploded near the runway of Tbilisi international airport, in an air strike the interior ministry said appeared to be aimed at the nearby military and aviation construction plant. Mr Kouchner will travel to Moscow today for talks with Russian leaders, the French foreign ministry said.
"We don't want the conflict to spread in a region which is extremely volatile and dangerous," he told French radio ahead of his departure.
Mr Kouchner is to offer French and EU humanitarian aid during his visit and to report to EU foreign ministers at a meeting on Wednesday.
- (Reuters)