Russia rebuffs U.S. over Georgia mediation

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will reject a call by the United States for international mediators to take a bigger role in defusing a row with Georgia, Interfax news agency quoted a Russian diplomatic source as saying on Friday.

A surge in violence over the last few weeks in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- where Russia and Georgia are locked in a tense standoff -- has worried Western states which fear it could trigger a wider conflict.

Tbilisi recalled its ambassador from Moscow after Russia said it sent its warplanes into Georgian airspace earlier this week to ward off a Georgian attack on South Ossetia.

Georgia's parliament on Friday unanimously appealed for world governments "to condemn Russia's aggressive actions...and to support Georgia's peaceful initiative for conflict resolution".

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told Reuters on Friday: "The situation is really precarious."

He said the "problem is that it looks like some people in Moscow no longer treat us as an independent country and this is really dangerous for us but also for Moscow."

Asked if recalling the ambassador to Russia was effectively cutting ties, he said: "No, no. Georgia could never break her ties with Russia, even if we wanted to and we don't want to."

Saakashvili was speaking to Reuters at a two-day European integration conference in Yalta in the Ukraine.