Georgia offers separatists deal before NATO summit

By Niko Mchedlishvili

TBIILISI (Reuters) - Georgia offered a power-sharing deal to its breakaway Abkhazia region on Friday, days before NATO members meet to consider membership of the ex-Soviet state.

Georgia's pro-Western leaders, seeking to move Tbilisi out of Moscow's orbit, hope that a NATO summit in Bucharest next week will give them a Membership Action Plan setting out steps to joining the alliance.

But some NATO members in Europe say Georgia's separatist conflicts make it unstable and it should be excluded.

President Mikhail Saakashvili offered Abkhazia the post of Georgia's vice president, free trade zones, parliamentary representation, a unified customs service and the integration of security services.

"At the same time they will have full autonomy locally. We offer the Abkhaz a resumption of talks on all issues," Saakashvili told political scientists at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies.

Saakashvili has offered Abkhazia and South Ossetia a large degree of autonomy but the proposals he made on Friday went further.

Abkhazia's Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba said the offer was "unacceptable." He said a referendum in Abkhazia had showed an overwhelming number of Abkhaz residents wanted independence.

Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions broke with Tbilisi following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Backed by Russia, they run their own affairs but their independence has not been recognized by any state.

NATO meets in Bucharest on April 2-4 for a summit where it will discuss applications from Georgia and Ukraine to be given a roadmap for eventual membership. Georgia is also seeking to join the European Union.

Russia has warned Georgia against using NATO membership as a tool to regain control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Underlining the challenge facing Georgia in Bucharest, the Organization for Security in Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Friday expressed concern about a spate of bombings in South Ossetia in the past month.

Temur Iakobashvili, Georgia's State Minister for Reintegration, said the bombings in South Ossetia were an attempt to discredit Tbilisi's NATO bid.

"There are attempts to provoke a war in the region and get Georgia involved in combat operations in order to hinder Georgia's integration into NATO." (Additional reporting by Helsinki bureau; Writing by Chris Baldwin; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)