Ossetian boss rows back on talk of joining Russia

Eduard Kokoity, the leader of South Ossetia, gestures during a rally in Tskhinvali, the main city of the breakaway region August 21, 2008.

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Moscow dismissed suggestions on Thursday that Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia planned to become part of Russia after contradictory statements by its leader.

"Yes, we will be part of the Russian Federation," South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity told reporters in the Russian resort of Sochi on the Black Sea. "We will do it according to the norms of international law."

"Now we are an independent state and we look forward to uniting with North Ossetia and joining the Russian Federation," Kokoity said.

The international community sees South Ossetia as a Georgian province but Moscow recognised it as an independent state last month after fighting a war with Georgia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, asked about Kokoity's remarks, said: "I don't know where you get this information from. I never heard that South Ossetia wants to join Russia."

"South Ossetia has understood it cannot guarantee its safety without declaring independence," he said after talks in Warsaw, adding that Russia had had to recognise that independence to help secure the "survival" of the South Ossetian people.

Russian troops crushed an attempt by Tbilisi to retake South Ossetia by force last month, drawing widespread international condemnation and prompting concern over the security of energy supplies through the region.

KOKOITY ROWS BACK

Later on Thursday, Kokoity rowed back on his remarks, Interfax news agency reported.

"Seemingly, I have not been correctly understood. We do not intend to abandon our independence, which we have won at the cost of enormous sacrifices, and South Ossetia is not intending to become part of Russia," he was quoted as saying by Interfax.

"Yes, many in South Ossetia talk about uniting with North Ossetia as part of Russia, and no one can ban the expression of such ideas. But South Ossetia does not plan to become part of Russia."

South Ossetia borders North Ossetia, a region inside the Russian Federation, and broke away from Georgia's rule after a separatist war in the 1990s. It has an area of some 1,500 square miles (4,000 square km) and a population of around 70,000.

The possibility of South Ossetia becoming absorbed into Russia was met with a stern rebuke from the West.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the position of both his own country and the European Union was clear: "We stick with the territorial integrity of Georgia."

Steinmeier confirmed that Germany planned to send 40 observers to the region as part of a 200-strong EU monitoring force. The mission's leadership would have to decide whether all of them would be deployed immediately, he said.

(Additional reporting by Gareth Jones in Warsaw and Kerstin Gehmlich in Berlin)