Abkhazia rejects Georgia's offer of autonomy

Mar 29, 2008, 14:17 GMT

Moscow/Tbilisi - Ahead of next week's NATO summit in Bucharest, Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia rejected Saturday an offer of wide-ranging autonomy by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Saakashvili had offered the region the office of vice president and the right to set up free-trade zones, but Abkhazia, which receives support from Russia, has rejected the move as propaganda, Interfax reported from the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi.

'This is propaganda ahead of the NATO summit. Georgia is trying to portray itself as a peace-loving country in the eyes of the North Atlantic alliance because it wants to join NATO,' Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh said.

The Abkhazian people had voted in a referendum for independence, Bagapsh stressed.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another breakaway region of the Caucasus nation, have asked Russia and the international community to recognize their independence as they did for Kosovo when it declared independence from Serbia.

Russia has unilaterally lifted all sanctions against Abkhazia despite protests from Georgia.

Russia's State Duma supported the region's independence and called on President Vladimir Putin and the government to recognize it.

Political scientists in Moscow believe Russia will recognize the former Soviet regions if Georgia joins NATO.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had warned Tbilisi it was 'playing with fire.'

NATO foreign ministers meet in Bucharest April 2-4 to discuss the possible admission of Georgia and Ukraine, among others.

Some NATO members, including Germany and France, have warned against cooperating too rapidly with the two former Soviet republics.