By Paul Taylor BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Georgia's prime minister accused Russia on Monday of preparing for war in his country by sponsoring a "provocative" separatist referendum and stepping up its rhetoric against Tbilisi. In an interview with Reuters on a visit to European Union headquarters in Brussels, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said Sunday's independence vote in the breakaway region of South Ossetia was part of a Kremlin strategy of raising tension in the former Soviet republic. "They are recently portraying us as if we are going to start war there, which has never been our intention," he said. "Their recent rhetoric and action are making us draw the conclusion that they themselves are getting prepared for a war." Nogaideli dismissed the result of the referendum, which the West had declared illegal in advance. "This referendum has been a significant provocation, co-organised by the de facto leaders and their Russian partners. It can only increase the tensions in the region, nothing else, because nobody is going certainly to take the result of the referendum into account and recognise it," he said. South Ossetia, a sliver of land in the Caucasus mountains, threw off Tbilisi's rule in a 1990s war. Its status unrecognised and with a tense military standoff on its borders, it is now one of the ex-Soviet Union's "frozen conflicts." Nogaideli said Georgia had never believed in a military solution in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and denied Russian charges that it had raised military pressure on the separatists. He said Tbilisi was willing to sit down with Moscow and discuss all outstanding disputes. But he ruled out talks on the future status of the regions with their separatist leaders at this stage, saying law and order had to be restored in both areas and reconstruction launched before there could be status talks. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili moved his hawkish Defence Minister, Irakli Okruashvili, to a new post on Friday, in the strongest sign yet he wants to end a standoff that has dragged Russian-Georgian relations to an unprecedented low. Nogaideli said the switch did not reflect Western pressure and would not change his country's military posture. "We will continue the process of NATO integration and we will continue to remain faithful to the peaceful resolution of the conflicts," he said. Asked whether he was concerned by Russian talk of parallels between negotiations on a possible independence status for Kosovo and the future of the breakaway Georgian regions, the prime minister dismissed any comparison. "Not really, drawing any parallels or conclusions or putting this as a precedent is just nonsense," he said. "We don't consider it our business, frankly speaking."
