Kouchner Meets Saakashvili as EU Steps Up Georgia Peace Effort

By Greg Walters and Gregory Viscusi

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union is intensifying efforts to end five days of combat between Georgia and Russia that left scores dead and threatens to disrupt a major energy transport route.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, representing the EU, met Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the capital, Tblisi, overnight for talks aimed at ending fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, a spokesman said by phone in Paris. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will travel to Moscow for talks with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev early this week, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Georgia withdrew its troops from South Ossetia yesterday after Georgian casualties rose ``into the hundreds,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. Russian officials confirmed the withdrawal and put the South Ossetian death toll at more than 2,000, many of them Russian citizens. Most residents of South Ossetia hold Russian passports.

As Georgian soldiers left, armed conflict heated up in Abkhazia, a second breakaway region of the former Soviet republic. President Sergei Bagapsh gave Georgia a deadline for removing its troops from the upper Kodori Gorge, a part of the region controlled by Georgia, as Abkhaz warplanes and artillery pounded Georgian positions for a second day, according to a statement on the president's Web site.

Bagapsh said Abkhazia is acting ``independently,'' without Russian help. That assertion was disputed by Georgia's Utiashvili, who said Russian troops are deployed in Abkhazia.

`Doing Fine'

``The Russians sent their paratroopers and land forces to try to attack Kodori, but so far we are doing fine there,'' Utiashvili said by phone from Tbilisi. Georgia's UN ambassador, Irakli Alasania, told CNN that ``at least'' 6,000 Russian troops have entered Georgia since the hostilities began.

Heavy fighting began on Aug. 7 in South Ossetia, which broke from Georgia in a war in the early 1990s. Russia sent troops and tanks into the disputed region the next day in what it said was a response to Georgia's assault on Russian citizens and peacekeeping forces.

About 2,500 Russian peacekeepers were deployed on the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia before the conflict began, according to the Russian government. They serve under a under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate. A United Nations observer mission has been deployed on the border since 1993.

Russia won't ``initiate an escalation of the conflict'' in Abkhazia, said Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russian deputy chief of the General Staff.

Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the UN, yesterday said Abkhazia is engaged in a ``Russian-based military offensive'' against Georgia in the Kodori Gorge that is a ``direct challenge to a UN Security Council-mandated mission.''

`Urgent Action'

``We believe the Security Council must take urgent action,'' Khalilzad said during the fourth Security Council meeting on Georgia in as many days. ``We must condemn Russia's military assault on the sovereign state of Georgia.'' The UN has so far failed to adopt a resolution on the situation in Georgia.

Saakashvili has accused Russia of conducting a ``well- planned invasion'' of Georgia.

Rising tensions and violence in Georgia's rebel regions have made the Caucasus mountain nation a flashpoint in Russia's relations with the West. The conflict deals a blow to U.S. aspirations of bringing Georgia into NATO's orbit and of bolstering an emerging energy corridor linking Central Asia to Europe.

NATO Meeting

NATO ambassadors will meet with representatives of the Georgian government on Aug. 12, Carmen Romero, a spokeswoman for the alliance, said by telephone yesterday. Georgia has been seeking membership in the 26-nation alliance, while its bid for fast-track status was rebuffed in April. NATO instead adopted a statement that may keep Georgia in line to be a possible future member, without binding the organization to a timetable.

Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tskhinvali.

In a statement late yesterday, Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said the Georgian retreat from South Ossetia may lay the groundwork for a ceasefire.

``Georgia has realized it's not going to get a solution militarily, and their best hope is accruing an international coalition that will support them diplomatically,'' Michael Denison, a professor of international security at the University of Leeds in the U.K. ``They knew the international community wouldn't be willing to commit troops on the ground.''

Churkin Comments

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Russia is ``ready to put an end to the war.'' Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said earlier that if Georgia withdraws its troops from the conflict zones and signs an agreement forswearing the use of force, Russia is prepared to enter into peace talks.

Eight Russian warships were docked at Abkhaz ports yesterday, said Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russian deputy chief of the General Staff, said Russian ships aren't involved in the fighting.

In signs of a possible economic blockade, Russian warships prevented a Ukrainian ship carrying grain and an unidentified oil tanker from docking in the Georgian port of Poti, Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze said yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Walters in Moscow gwalters1@bloomberg.netGregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net;