NATO has accused Moscow of stoking tensions by announcing a troop build-up in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region which risked undermining stability in the country.
Member states' envoys to NATO met Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's permanent representative to the alliance, NATO for what was "a clear and sometimes sharp exchange of views, but absolutely no meeting of the minds," a NATO spokesman said.
The ambassadors of the U.S.-led alliance expressed "clearly and unanimously" their concern about Russian moves to establish legal links to Abkhazia and a second separatist region, South Ossetia, saying it undermined Georgian sovereignty.
They also called for an international probe of the shooting down of a Georgian drone last weekend and said Russia's announcement on Tuesday that it would send more troops to Abkhazia without Georgian permission "risks undermining stability in that country," the spokesman said.
Russia said it was sending the extra peacekeeping troops to counter what it called Georgian plans for an attack, prompting the European Union to also accuse it of stoking tensions.
The NATO spokesman, James Appathurai, said Moscow might be technically entitled to raise its troop levels, but "in the political reality, this is not easing tensions, it is raising tensions."
According to the mandate for Abkhazia peacekeeping, plans for deployments had to be approved by the conflicting sides, "and the Georgian side has made clear it would not approve."
"NATO is watching with concern. It wants to see all parties avoid the kind of rhetoric that we have seen that is escalating tension and not take steps...to undermine what is already a fragile situation," Appathurai said.
"The allies are unanimous in supporting and endorsing Georgia's territorial integrity."
The crisis between the small Transcaucasian country, a vital energy transit route, and its former Soviet master has alarmed NATO allies, which see Georgia as a future member.
On Monday, NATO ambassadors met Georgian presidential envoy David Bakradze in Brussels. They reiterated support for Georgia and criticised Russia for warning about possible use of force.
In a further show of support, NATO also announced plans for the envoys to visit Georgia before the end of the year.
Yesterday, NATO announced plans for a similar mission in June to Ukraine, another ex-Soviet state the alliance has said will one day join the 26-nation alliance.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated after meeting EU ministers on Tuesday that Moscow would use military force if Georgia attacked Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after the talks the Russian deployment of extra peacekeepers was unwise.
Bakradze met Solana in Brussels yesterday and called on the EU to increase its presence in the country.
"The more EU presence we have, the less chances there are that there will be destabilization and that Russia's provocations will be successful," he told reporters.
Reuters