BRUSSELS: Russian cooperation with NATO has been damaged by the alliance's backing for Georgia and could deteriorate further if Georgia gains membership, Russia's NATO envoy said on Monday.

Dmitry Rogozin said Moscow would be closely watching a NATO meeting on Tuesday to discuss a U. S. call to review relations with Russia as a result of Moscow's intervention in Georgia.

"We will be watching very closely what decision will be taken by NATO Council at the level of foreign affairs ministers and defence..." he told reporters.

'If these decisions are in fact taken on behalf of the Georgian aggressor, we will not be able to maintain the quality and the schedule of our relationship with NATO," he added.

Rogozin also accused the western states of distorting information to portray Russia as the aggressor after Tbilisi launched an assault to regain control of the Russian-backed breakaway South Ossetia region on Aug. 7.

Russia launched a massive counter-offensive, fanning out beyond South Ossetia into the Georgian heartland.

"Today we have a serious temptation to bring all our potential cooperation with NATO under question," Rogozin said.

Recent cooperation has included joint exercises and work on detecting explosives, work on submarine rescues and Russia allowing NATO to cross its territory to reach Afghanistan, he said. Rogozin also said Moscow had withdrawn a request for an emergency meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) to discuss the crisis, a request he had previously accused the U. S. of blocking.

"The Russian Federation has just ...withdrawn its request to hold an extraordinary NRC meeting. It s no longer pertinent."
Source : Reuters