Georgia's president warns Russia on WTO accession

TBILISI, July 17 (Reuters) Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has threatened to drop support for Russian entry to the World Trade Organisation at a time of high tension between the neighbours over a rebel Georgian province.

With Russia busy hosting the Group of Eight summit, there have been sharp exchanges about South Ossetia, which broke away from central Georgian rule in the early 1990s.

Russia has accused Georgia of preparing to go to war to reassert control.

Georgia's government on Friday informed the WTO and Russia that it would renew trade talks. It said Moscow was not fulfilling its obligations under an original May 2004 agreement, including closing border crossings with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region.

Russia has also banned imports of Georgian wine, mineral water and agricultural products, citing health reasons. Georgia said it was punishment for pro-Western policies.

''Russia's quick entry to WTO is in our interests. But we are not going to turn a blind eye to attempts to harm our economy using forbidden methods,'' Saakashvili said in a televised address yesterday.

''Georgia won't change its position until the time when all these issues are solved,'' he added.

Last week Russia, the last major economy outside the WTO, failed to reach a bilateral agreement with the United States, the last major obstacle to accession. It has to sign deals with all members, any of which have the theoretical right to veto.

Saakashvili denied there were plans to attack South Ossetia, where two teenagers died in a Friday bombing blamed by the rebels on Georgia, but made clear the current unresolved status of the region was not good enough.

''We will never bear even a hint that Georgia could lose these territories,'' he said.

Georgia has long accused Russia of supporting South Ossetia, where Moscow pays pensions and hands out passports. Moscow says it is just keeping the peace between the two sides.

''The Georgian authorities started and are continuing a series of provocations against Russian diplomats and peacekeepers during the G8 summit,'' said an unusually strongly worded Russian Foreign Ministry statement yesterday.

REUTERS SI DS1240