Russia ready to rebuild ties with US : Medvedev

Moscow, Sep 3 (UNI) After weeks of high-pitch rhetoric in wake of the Russia-Georgia conflict, President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow was ready to rebuild damaged relations with Washington, despite the US support for the Georgian regime.

Medvedev told Euronews TV channel yesterday that tensions in Russia-US bilateral relations "are the consequences of not entirely reasonable polices on part of the US toward, Georgia." He said the US which has provided substantial military and political support to Gergian President Mikheil Saakashvili, has given him carte blanche to act as he chooses.

"The result of this is evident.There is now a certain annoyance in the US that this virtual 'free Georgia' project did not succeed," Medvedev said, adding, "The leaders went bankrupt, the regime is close to crisis, and the situation is tense." He said sooner the US resolves this problem, the better for the Russian-US relations.

"We are ready for them to be restored in the best possible way. We are ready for fully functioning relations with the US," Medvedev stressed.

He also assured Europe that Russia will meet all its commitments to supply natural gas to the EU countries.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has vowed a "measured response" to the presence of NATO ships in the Black Sea.

"Our response will be calm,not hysterical, but there will definitely be a response," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying.

He also said the joint statement signed by the EU leaders at their summit in Burssels Monday,showed that Russia's relations with Europe would develop despite the Georgian conflict.

"Thank God, common sense prevailed. We do not see any extreme conclusions or proposals, and this is very good," he said, pointing out, "We have a foundaion to continue dialogue with our European partners." UNI XC ATI UCS2028 .