TBILISI (AFX) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili qualified as 'absurd' a claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Georgia was preparing military action to take back two separatist regions.
'It's absurd. We don't need a war,' Saakashvili told reporters during a visit to a new terminal at Tbilisi airport.
On Friday, Putin said after a meeting with EU leaders in Finland that Georgia was preparing to take back the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in separatist wars in the 1990s.
'To our regret and fear, it is heading for bloodshed. Georgia wants to resolve the disputes with military action,' Putin said.
Earlier this month, the UN Security Council urged Georgia in a resolution to pull back forces from the Kodori Gorge, an area close to the Russian-backed breakaway province of Abkhazia.
Relations between the two neighbours have hit new lows in the past month following a diplomatic crisis sparked by the brief detention of four Russian military officers by Georgian authorities.
Russia has imposed transport and communications sanctions on Georgia.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who was in Moscow on Saturday, called for 'cooler heads' in the row between Russia and Georgia.
'Cooler heads need to prevail here... because that is the kind of problem that can get out of control,' Rice said before meeting with Putin and other Russian ministers following a diplomatic shuttle around Asia over the North Korea nuclear crisis. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited