Sep 7, 2008

Cheney holds talks in Italy on Georgia crisis

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO

The Associated Press

Vice President Dick Cheney renewed his call for cooperation between Europe and Washington over the Georgia crisis, Italy's foreign minister said Sunday.

Franco Frattini said that during talks he and Cheney expressed their 'shared wish for intense collaboration between Europe and the United States.'

'This Caucasus crisis cannot be solved unless there is intense collaboration ... which we will have,' Frattini said after the 40-minute meeting on the sidelines of a conference on Lake Como.

The two also discussed EU dependance on Russian oil and gas, a crucial factor in the 27-nation bloc's dealing of the crisis following five days of fighting last month between Georgia and Russia.

The EU buys 30 percent of the oil it imports from Russia, while about 40 percent of the EU's imported natural gas also comes from Russia.

The bloc will discuss ways to reduce its dependance at a meeting in October, and Frattini said Cheney suggested inviting Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the meeting. The foreign minister welcomed the suggestion and said he would relay it to France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Cheney's visit to Italy was part of a tour that also took him to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. After the meeting with Frattini, he traveled to Rome where he will hold talks in the coming days with senior Italian officials, including Premier Silvio Berlusconi _ staunch U.S. ally.

In his address to the conference of global political and business leaders, Cheney issued a strong rebuke of Russia. He described Moscow's actions in the conflict with Georgia as an 'affront to civilized standards,' and called on Western nations to jointly prevent Russia from using its position as a dominant energy supplier to intimidate its neighbors.

He also spoke of Russian arms sales to hostile Mideast nations, saying Moscow 'has sold advanced weapons to regimes in Syria and Iran. Some of the Russian weapons sold to Damascus have been channeled to terrorist fighters in Lebanon and Iraq.'

According to the Israeli daily Maariv, Cheney touched on the same theme during talks with the Israeli President Shimon Peres, also attending the conference.

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