NATO must choose between Russia, Georgia: FM

MOSCOW: Russia does not want to "slam the door" on NATO but the alliance must choose between partnership with Moscow or support for Georgia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

"Everything depends on NATO's priorities," Lavrov said in remarks from the Black Sea resort of Sochi broadcast on Russian television.

"If the priority is blind support for the bankrupt Saakashvili regime and if they are ready to pay the price of a break in relations with Russia, then that is not our choice," the foreign minister said.

"We are not planning to slam the door" on NATO, Lavrov said in Sochi where President Dmitry Medvedev held talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

At a Brussels meeting on Tuesday, NATO foreign ministers decided to suspend a cooperation council with Russia until Moscow honours its promise to pull back troops from Georgia.

In response, the Russian navy announced it was pulling out of a NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea and was unable to host a scheduled visit by a US naval frigate.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko earlier was quoted by Interfax as saying that Moscow was "reviewing" cooperation with NATO and assessing relations that have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War.

Lavrov argued that cooperation with Russia was critical for the success of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's mission in Afghanistan, where the alliance has deployed 40,000 troops after the Taliban were ousted in late 2001.

While Russia has no troops in Afghanistan, it has signed key agreements to allow NATO supplies to transit through Russian territory.

"We hope that cooperation on Afghanistan will not end," said Lavrov.

Russian forces moved deep inside Georgian territory after Tbilisi mounted an offensive against separatists in the breakaway region of South Ossetia on August 7.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has won US support in his drive for NATO membership, accused Russia of dragging its feet in its pledge to pull back its troops in Georgia.

Medvedev has pledged to complete the withdrawal by Friday.