By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Russia pressed on Thursday for speedy adoption by the U.N. Security Council of its resolution endorsing a peace plan for Georgia but Western powers said they could not support the draft. The council, which has so far been unable to issue any resolution or statement on the crisis that erupted two weeks ago in the Caucasus, ended more than two hours of closed-door discussions still divided and without taking action. The 15-nation body has been paralyzed since Georgia sent its military on Aug. 7-8 to try to recapture the Moscow-backed breakaway enclave of South Ossetia and Russia responded with overwhelming force, sending troops and tanks far into Georgia. Russia had on Wednesday put a resolution before the council endorsing a six-point peace plan French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed with Moscow and Tbilisi. That responded to a brief resolution submitted by France on Tuesday that demanded an immediate Russian withdrawal. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his delegation would now put the resolution "in blue" -- U.N. jargon meaning the text is ready to be voted on. "What needs to be done is to adopt a resolution," he told journalists. But he declined to say when he would call for a vote and Western diplomats said they doubted he would do so. They said Russia lacked a majority in the council, even without taking account of likely vetoes by the United States, Britain and France. Western countries say they support the six-point plan but that it is not enough for a resolution since it does not mention Georgia's territorial integrity or precisely where Russian forces will be deployed in future. Most importantly, they say, Russia has so far made no substantial withdrawal. "The six points alone without clarifications, without signs of compliance with those six points ... raises the question why should we put the council in a position of enshrining something that is not being adhered to," U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff told reporters. British Ambassador John Sawers said there was a "good deal more work to be done." Wolff, Sawers and French Deputy Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix all said most members of the council wanted a unanimous resolution. Diplomats said the French draft submitted on Tuesday was likely to be quietly shelved and that France would work on one that was based on the six-point plan but included points missing from Russia's draft, including specific mention of territorial integrity. Moscow says that by attacking South Ossetia, Georgia has forfeited its right to rule the province and another breakaway region, Abkhazia. Asked why Russia had agreed to the phrase "territorial integrity" in all previous resolutions on Georgia, Churkin said, "That was then. This is now." (Additional reporting by Daniel Bases; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Russia's most famous conductor Valery Gergiev receives flowers after giving a requiem concert in Tskhinvali, the capital of the rebel South Ossetia region August 21, 2008, to commemorate victims of Georgia's ...
Georgia
