GEORGIA/RUSSIA: Georgia's parliament called for international troops to replace Russia's peacekeeping force in the restive region of South Ossetia yesterday, after Georgia's prime minister accused pro-Moscow separatists of shooting at his car, Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow
At least four people were hurt in other exchanges of gun and mortar fire between Georgian troops and irregulars from South Ossetia, a mostly Russian region that won de facto independence from Tbilisi in a bitter war in the early 1990s.
Russian peacekeepers have watched a ceasefire disintegrate in recent months as Georgian president Mr Mikhail Saakashvili has intensified his campaign to bring South Ossetia back under Tbilisi's control, despite widespread opposition from the majority of Ossetians who hold Russian passports and would like to be ruled by Moscow.
Mr Saakashvili has repeatedly accused Russia of supplying arms to South Ossetia's secessionist regime, and his loyal parliament supported him with a scathing indictment of Moscow's role in the province.
"It is unacceptable to entrust this peacekeeping mission to a country whose political interests run counter to any fair and final settlement," the parliamentarians said in a resolution that won their overwhelming approval.
"In fact, the Russian Federation does not represent the peacekeepers or mediators. It represents one of the conflicting parties that is doing everything in its power to maintain this dangerous status quo," the statement said.
Though the resolution was non-binding, it is likely to further inflame relations between Moscow and a Tbilisi administration that wants to limit the influence of its Soviet-era master and bolster ties with Washington and the European Union.
The Kremlin has watched askance as Georgia has courted the West, inviting US advisers to train its troops and aiming for eventual membership of NATO and the European Union. Washington has also invested heavily in a pipeline across Georgia that will bring Caspian Sea oil to Western markets.
Russia immediately rejected the parliamentarians' call for greater foreign oversight of the simmering conflict in South Ossetia, involving observers from international watchdogs like the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Georgia's chief envoy to the negotiations, Mr Georgy Khaindrava, said talks were foundering over the refusal of South Ossetia's president Mr Eduard Kokoity, to take part.
Mr Kokoity dismissed as "pure provocation" allegations from Georgia's prime minister that South Ossetian troops had fired at his convoy.