NATO to hold emergency talks with Russia on Georgia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO will hold an emergency meeting with Russia on Tuesday at Moscow's request to discuss the crisis in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, an alliance spokeswoman said.

Russia's ambassador to the Western military alliance requested a meeting at ambassador level on Tuesday, when Georgian Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili will meet NATO's policy-making North Atlantic Council.

"This morning the Russian mission to NATO made a decision to put forward a proposal to NATO leaders for an extraordinary Russia-NATO council," Dmitry Rogozin told a news briefing.

NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said: "Preparations for such a meeting are under way and it will probably go ahead tomorrow."

Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer accused Russia of using disproportionate force and violating Georgia's territory after Russian military action spread beyond South Ossetia.

NATO angered Russia in April by declaring that former Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine would one day join the Western military alliance.

(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Paul Taylor)