WASHINGTON (AFP)--US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice privately warned Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to avoid a conflict with Russia during her trip to Tbilisi in July, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing a US official.
"She told him, in no uncertain terms, that he had to put a non-use of force pledge on the table," an unnamed senior US official who accompanied Rice on the trip told the newspaper.
The message was delivered during a private dinner on July 9, the report added.
Publicly, however, during the trip Rice blamed Russia as a source of continuing unrest in the country.
Russia "needs to be a part of resolving the problem and solving the problems and not contributing to it," she said at a July 10 joint press conference with Saakashvili.......
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