U.S. to urge NATO to scale back Russia ties

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inspects an honour guard during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the World War Two battle of Kursk at a memorial site in Kursk August 18, 2008.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States will call on NATO allies on Tuesday to consider suspending ministerial meetings between the alliance and Moscow to press Russia to respect a peace deal on Georgia, a senior U.S. official said.

Russia in turn said post-Cold War cooperation with NATO had been damaged by the alliance's support for Georgia in the conflict over Russian-backed breakaway republics and could deteriorate further if Georgia gained NATO membership.

At an emergency meeting in Brussels the 26 NATO ministers will pledge support for Georgia and reiterate a promise of future membership, a spokeswoman for the alliance said.

Washington called for the meeting to review ties with Moscow and discuss help to Georgia, a former part of the Soviet Union that won a pledge of NATO membership at an April summit.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there had been no evidence yet that Moscow had begun its troop withdrawal from Georgia and "at a minimum" NATO would be looking at suspending ministerial meetings with Russia.

"We don't want to be in a situation where we are in some kind of a frozen relationship ... But until Russia pulls its forces out of Georgia and respects international norms of the 21st century, we just can't go on with business as usual."

Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said Moscow would be closely watching the NATO meeting and warned: "If these decisions are in fact taken on behalf of the Georgian aggressor, we will not be able to maintain the quality and the schedule of our relationship with NATO."

"Today we have a serious temptation to bring all our potential cooperation with NATO under question," he said, adding such cooperation included Russia allowing NATO to cross its territory to reach Afghanistan.

Months of tension between Georgia and Russia erupted on August 7, when Tbilisi sought to regain control of the breakaway South Ossetia region. Russia launched a massive counter-offensive that extended into the Georgian heartland.

Russia was incensed by NATO's promise of membership to Georgia. This would take NATO right up to Russia's southern border and many analysts believe that a similar promise of membership for Ukraine was behind this month's fighting.

SOME EUROPEANS CAUTIOUS

Diplomats said NATO states were still discussing a statement for the ministerial, with U.S., Britain and Eastern European states pushing a tough line and others more cautious.

Russia is a key energy supplier and some big European NATO members like France and Germany are loath to antagonize Moscow.

A NATO spokeswoman played down reports of divisions among NATO members, saying a "strong message" to Russia was expected calling for implementation of a ceasefire, its commitment to withdraw troops and an international peace mechanism.

Carmen Romero said ministers would deliver "a very clear message of solidarity to Georgia" and reiterate a commitment to its eventual future membership.

She said NATO was also expected to agree to assess damage to Georgian infrastructure while a draft text says a solution to the conflict must be based on respect for Georgia's "independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity..."

Washington has excluded Moscow from discussions among the Group of Eight nations and made clear Russia's membership of bodies like the World Trade Organisation could be in jeopardy.

NATO has already barred a Russian ship from joining an anti-terrorism exercise and did not agree to a Russian request for an emergency meeting on the crisis in the Caucasus.

However analysts say isolating Moscow does not seem a viable option for Washington as Russia is too important. If ties were to deteriorate to Cold War level, a lot is at stake, from U.N. cooperation on curbing Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions to access to Asia and Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Pete Harrison and Carsten Lietz; Editing by Mariam Karouny)