NATO "deeply concerned" by Russia's Georgia move

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO said on Wednesday it was deeply concerned by Russia's announcement that it would establish legal links with neighboring Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"I am deeply concerned by the actions Russia has taken to establish legal links with the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, noting NATO allies had reiterated their support Georgia's territorial integrity at a summit this month.

"The Russian steps undermine that sovereignty," he said in a statement. "I urge the Russian Federation to reverse these measures, and call on the Georgian authorities to continue to show restraint."

Moscow announced the new links two weeks after NATO angered Russia by agreeing at a summit in Bucharest that Georgia would eventually join the alliance, though it did not set a timetable for membership.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, editing by Paul Taylor)