Bush urges conflict resolution at Russia borders

TALLINN, Nov 28 (Reuters) US President George Bush offered help today to resolve conflicts in Russia's neighbourhood, hours before he was to attend the first NATO summit on former Soviet territory.

Just before the summit, to be held in neighbouring Latvia, Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said he had discussed with Bush in Tallinn support for ex-Soviet countries, such as Georgia and Ukraine, that have challenged Moscow.

''One of the main messages today was the message of freedom to those states who, like us, have chosen the way to democracy and freedom and will not bow to pressure from any of their neighbours, and by these countries we mean Georgia, Ukraine,'' Ilves told a news conference.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been criticised in the United States and the European Union for backsliding on democracy and using Russia's vast energy supplies to browbeat its neighbours.

Russia's new assertiveness worries former Soviet satellites from central and eastern Europe, especially Poland, and those ex-Soviet republics that want to act independently of Moscow, such as the Baltic states and Georgia.

Russia has cut air, land, sea and postal links with Georgia, initially in response to the brief detention last month of four Russian servicemen on suspicion of espionage. Several hundred Georgians living in Russia have been deemed illegal immigrants and sent home.

The row was fuelled by tensions over Tbilisi's drive to join NATO and the European Union and disputes about two separatist regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are supported by Moscow.

Bush offered help to end the conflict peacefully.

''Precisely what we ought to do is help resolve the conflict and use our diplomats to convince people there is a better way forward than through violence. We haven't seen violence yet,'' he told the news conference.

He thanked countries such as Estonia that are helping to train new independent political elites in Georgia and Ukraine. Ukraine's initial pro-Western drive after its ''Orange Revolution'' in 2004 has faded this year.

''You have made a very successful transition to democracy, and you're helping other nations do the same, and that is a vital contribution to world peace. I appreciate the fact that you're training leaders from Georgia to Moldova to the Ukraine,'' Bush told Ilves.

The summit is unlikely to bring Georgia and Ukraine any closer to NATO membership, a move recently opposed by Ukraine's pro-Russian prime minister though supported by its pro-Western president.

But NATO may signal its readiness to invite the Balkan countries of Croatia, Macedonia and Albania to join.

REUTERS SSC KN1924