The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Moscow

Germany got mixed feedback Friday on a plan to resolve escalating tensions between Georgia and Russian-backed separatists in the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier floated the proposals during a two-day stint of shuttle diplomacy in Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia aimed at defusing a potentially explosive conflict in a volatile part of the world.

All three parties found elements to criticise, with the Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh rejecting the plan outright and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili dismissing key elements including a non-aggression pact. But after initial criticism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to warm to aspects of the three-stage roadmap, saying it offered a potential basis to break the deadlock. After a meeting with Steinmeier, Lavrov said Berlin's initiative was "extremely helpful for looking for compromises and a way out of the crisis."

"We believe that the logic of your plan is absolutely the right one," Lavrov told Steinmeier at a joint news conference.

Germany chairs the so-called UN Group of Friends of the Secretary General seeking to reverse a sharp rise in tensions in a long-simmering conflict between Georgia and the Russian-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.

Separatist leaders have blamed Georgia for a recent series of bombings accompanied by growing friction between Moscow and Tbilisi.