Russian MPs to press government on rebel regions

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Senior Russian lawmakers on Monday agreed on a draft resolution asking the government to examine options for recognizing the Moscow-backed Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The resolution will not be binding but its adoption by parliament, which could happen this week, will stoke Western concerns that Moscow plans to recognize the two Georgian regions, using Kosovo's independence as a precedent.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been running their own affairs since separatist wars in the 1990s. They do not have international recognition and the United States and the European Union oppose independence for them.

The draft resolution was prepared by the committee on former Soviet affairs in Russia's lower house of parliament.

The document has to be approved at a second committee hearing and will then be put to the full chamber for a vote on Friday. The lower house, or State Duma, is dominated by allies of President Vladimir Putin.

"The working draft of the State Duma resolution includes a proposal to the government to start consultations with the aim of determining the procedure for recognizing" Abkhazia and South Ossetia, committee chairman Alexei Ostrovsky told reporters.

"I hope that this position will be preserved in the version that will be put to the State Duma for consideration on Friday," he said.

Moscow provides aid to Abkhazia and South Ossetia and has issued many residents with Russian passports. Since Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, some Russians officials have signaled they favor granting them recognition.

But analysts say the Kremlin is wary of taking that step because it does not want to further aggravate relations with the West and fears reawakening separatist movements inside its own borders, especially the restive Chechnya region.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Peter Millership)