Ambassador Revaz Adamia said council members discussed efforts to resolve the crisis over Abkhazia's future status behind closed doors, refusing -- at Russia's insistence -- to let him address them about a dispute that has strained ties between Moscow and the former Soviet republic.

"Is the Georgian ambassador so dangerous to Russia? What can the Georgian ambassador say that the Russian delegation doesn't like so much? That is the truth -- the truth about the situation in Abkhazia," he told a news conference.

Abkhazia won effective independence from Georgia, a former Soviet republic, in a 1992-93 war, but its economy is devastated. Russia props it up by paying pensions, giving out passports and allowing cross-border traffic.

Georgia, home to 200,000 ethnic Georgian refugees who fled the war, has vowed to regain control over Abkhazia, as well as over another rebel region, South Ossetia.

But Sergei Bagapsh, winner of this month's presidential election in Abkhazia, said he would not compromise with Georgia to improve frozen relations with Tbilisi.

The council called the closed-door session on Tuesday for a briefing from U.N. special envoy Heidi Tagliavini, who heads the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Georgia.

She told the council the clear outcome of the Jan. 12 presidential election in Abkhazia after a disputed vote in October "gives us hope that the peace process can resume," she told reporters.

Adamia called the election "illegal and illegitimate" but said his government was nonetheless ready to resume negotiations with the Abkhaz side. "Unfortunately we do not see readiness to do so from the Abkhaz side," he said.

Russia has publicly called for talks between Abkhazia and Georgia now that the political turmoil following the disputed vote in October has been put to rest.

But Adamia said Moscow "still backs the secessionist regime there" and was pursuing a policy aimed at "indirect annexation of Abkhazia."

Source: Reuters