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WASHINGTON: The Group of Seven on Monday said it was "alarmed" over reported Russian plans to recognise two breakaway Georgian regions as independent nations, a US State Department official said.
"The G7 is united in support for Georgia's territorial integrity and alarmed by reports of Russian plans to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia," the official said after a conference call among political directors of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
With Russian troops still deep in Georgia, both houses of the Russian parliament on Monday approved an appeal to President Dmitry Medvedev to formally recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states following the Russia-Georgia conflict.
The G7 officials also agreed that a withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia, although significant, was "inadequate," the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"As they discussed, they were welcoming the significant withdrawal but remaining Russians on Georgian territory (is) unacceptable, they agreed," he said.
Russia withdrew tanks, artillery and hundreds of troops from their most advanced positions in Georgia on Friday. But Russian troops still control access to the port city of Poti, south of Abkhazia, and have established other checkpoints around South Ossetia.
Russia claims a six-point peace plan brokered by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy gives it the right to leave "peacekeepers" in a buffer zone deep inside Georgia.
"The Russians need to complete a return to the status quo ante as of August 6 has been repeatedly stated," the US official said, citing the date when fighting broke out in the separatist region of South Ossetia and spread to other parts of Georgia.
Russian troops entered Georgia in response to a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.
The political directors of the G7, according to the US official, stood behind French President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to end the crisis based on his six-point ceasefire plan as well as its "clarifications."
It was clarified under the French plan that while Russian combat troops must pull out from Georgia, an unspecified number of soldiers will remain as "peacekeepers" in and around South Ossetia.
The G7 officials also discussed the issue of internally displaced persons following the conflict and agreed to call for their return.
They welcomed an enhanced ceasefire monitoring mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 20 to 100 members and encouraged "rapid deployment of other international observers, including in Abkhazia and South Ossetia through the United Nations and the European Union."
In addition, the seven industrialised nations "looked forward to working together on Georgia's reconstruction." - AFP/de
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