No agreement btwn Georgia and Russia on WTO

Tbilisi, June1: Georgian and Russian officials failed to resolve a dispute over control of border checkpoints, which Georgia says must be cleared up before it backs Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Tbilisi says proper international controls need to be reinstated at checkpoints along the Russian border with Georgia's two breakaway regions -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- before it supports Russia's WTO membership.

''These negotiations showed that Russia unfortunately does not want to solve this problem at this stage and fulfil an obligation it took in 2004,'' Tamara Kovziridze, the head of the Georgian delegation, told reporters after talks in the capital.

Georgia's border guards currently patrol only de facto boundaries with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and not borders between the two republics and Russia.

Georgian officials threatened to veto Russia's WTO bid last year with the same demands, saying those custom check-points at its borders were illegal.

Russian officials say the two issues have nothing in common.

''Our (Georgian) colleagues believe that WTO rules apply for checkpoints, but the Russian side thinks ... these are two different things,'' said Maxim Medvedkov, the Russian delegation head. He added that talks would continue and officials were expected to meet again in July.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia both fought independence wars against Georgia in the early 1990s, and they have both declared independence. Russia says their wishes should be respected but Georgia and the West say they are illegal.

Reuters>