Violence mars Russia-Georgia talks before Rice trip

By Christian Lowe

MOSCOW, July 9 (Reuters) - Bombings and gun battles in two breakaway regions of Georgia are threatening efforts to ease a standoff between Tbilisi and Moscow, hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits the Georgian capital.

Rice, who arrives in Tbilisi on Wednesday, is expected to appeal for restraint on all sides but also express support for former Soviet Georgia's push to join the NATO military alliance, an ambition that has angered Russia.

"We said that both Georgia and Russia need to avoid provocative behaviour," Rice said as she flew to Europe on Tuesday. She also said "some of the things that Russia did over the last couple of months added to tensions in the region."

Georgia's pro-Western government has been locked in a tense confrontation with separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and their Russian backers since early this year.

Unmanned Georgian spy planes shot down over one of the rebel regions had been the only casualties, but the conflict has recently turned bloody. Four people were killed when a bomb exploded in a cafe in Abkhazia on Sunday and two died when rebels clashed with Georgian troops in South Ossetia last week.

The rise in violence follows the resumption of talks between Moscow and Tbilisi and media reports that the two are trying to tease out a compromise deal likely to anger hardliners.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have met twice in the past month. They made no breakthrough, but their talking at all was seen as progress.

Fyodr Lukyanov, a foreign policy analyst and editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said the rise in violence could be linked to the talks.