20:39, 24 December 2003

Tbilisi suspends talks with Abkhazia and South Osetia

Acting Georgian President Nino Burdjanadze announced that Tbilisi has suspended talks with Abkhazia and South Osetia.

"At present, talks with Abkhazia and South Osetia have, in effect, been suspended," she said in an interview with Rossiya television on Wednesday.

Burdjanadze is arriving in Moscow on Wednesday.

Burdjanadze informed she suggested that the Abkhazian leaders come to Sukhumi to prepare a new stage in the relations between Georgia and Abkhazia. "The Abkhazian side, like the South Osetian one, did not take this step," she stressed.

Nevertheless the Georgian leadership wants "the situation in these regions to stabilize, not deteriorate," she said.

"If Russia plays an active and positive role, we will be able to promptly resolve these conflicts through normal and civilized methods," she said.

While in Moscow, Burdjanadze plans to openly discuss problems between Russia and Georgia.

"Our relations should be started on a new page, an inventory should be conducted and a red line that must not be crossed should be drawn," she said.

Source: Interfax News Agency