Moscow:Russia today warned NATO against building up naval forces in the Black Sea as President Dmitry Medvedev confronted Western outrage over his recognition of two Georgian rebel regions as independent states.

As Medvedev prepared to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a key ally, the Russian military criticised NATO s naval presence in the Black Sea, said by the West to be part of planned exercises and to deliver aid to Georgia.

Russia recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as separate states and Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh celebrated aboard a Russian naval ship in the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi, downing a toast from a drinking horn with Russian officers.

Russian General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said Russian naval forces would monitor the NATO naval "buildup" and pointed to a 1936 convention limiting shipping levels in the Black Sea.

"Can NATO... Indefinitely build up its forces and means there? It turns out it cannot," Nogovitsyn said.

Russia s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that any attack by the alliance on the Moscow-backed regions would "mean a declaration of war on Russia," in an interview with Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei.

NATO responded with a new diplomatic attack. Alliance ambassadors meeting in Brussel condemned the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and called for it to be reversed.

Russia had deployed naval ships to Abkhazia to "support peace and stability in Abkhazia and in the republic s territorial waters," news agencies quoted senior admiral Sergei Menyailo as saying.


The Russian ships were given a rapturous welcome by the Abkhaz leader, after local residents joyfully greeted Russia s recognition of independence.
Source : PTI