Russia calls for arms embargo on Georgia

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has called for an international arms embargo to be placed on Georgia.

"It would be right to impose an embargo on weapons to this regime, until different authorities turn Georgia a normal state," Mr Lavrov said on Monday (1 September) in a speech to foreign policy students in Russia.

He also warned the European Union and the United States against backing Georgian leader Mikheil Sakaashvili.

"If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions," he said, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Additionally, Moscow has also accused the US of supplying Georgia with weapons hidden aboard ships delivering humanitarian aid to the embattled Caucasian republic.

Speaking to reporters, Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said his government suspected the ships of also containing "military components".

Meanwhile in Brussels on Monday, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs Matthew Bryza, speaking at a debate with the Russian ambassador to the EU and the Temur Yakobashvili, the Georgian minister for reintegration, and the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, rubbished the idea that the US was arming Georgia either since the conflict or in the lead-up to hostilities.

"The Georgia Train-and-Equip Programme delivered uniforms, boots, kalashnikovs and side-arms," said Mr Bryza, referring to GTEP, a series of activities launched by the Bush Administration in 2002. "There were no heavy weapons."

"We did not arm Georgia militarily," he added.