LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Suggestions that Moscow's military incursion into South Ossetia was an attempt to take over Georgia and topple its government are "palpable nonsense", Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Writing in Britain's Financial Times newspaper, Lavrov said Russia's military action had been "a proportionate response to an unprovoked assault on it citizens". Moscow has "no intention of annexing or occupying any part of Georgia and has again affirmed its respect for its sovereignty," he said. Georgia and Russia agreed in principle overnight to an EU-brokered peace plan for South Ossetia, a deal which Lavrov pledged to build on. "Over the next few days, on the condition that Georgia refrains from military activity and keeps its forces out of the region, Russia will continue to take the diplomatic steps required to consolidate this temporary cessation to hostilities," Lavrov wrote. He also criticised what he described as a "truly David and Goliath interpretation" of the conflict in which "the plucky republic of Georgia, with just a few million citizens, was attacked by its giant eastern neighbour". "Let me be absolutely clear," he wrote. "This is not a conflict of Russia's making. This is not a conflict of Russia's choosing. There are no winners from this conflict." He said that hours before the conflict erupted on Friday, Moscow had been trying to secure a United Nations Security Council statement calling on Georgia and South Ossetia to reject the use of force, but this was blocked by western countries. European Union foreign ministers meet on Wednesday to consider symbolic action against Russia to show their displeasure at its use of force against Georgia. Some EU countries have called for European peacekeepers or monitors for Georgia's two rebel regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Lavrov reasserted Russia's position as a member of the Security Council and of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialised nations, and said that "in keeping with its responsibilities as a world power" it would work to ensure a lasting and peaceful solution for the region. (Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Tim Pearce)
A local resident takes a picture using his mobile phone of a South Ossetian guard posing in front of a burnt Georgian tank in Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia's breakaway republic ...
Georgia
