200808202006 | Russia ignores Nato threat

Russia ignores Nato threat

Moscow - Russia's envoy to Nato on Tuesday dismissed the alliance's response to the conflict in Georgia, saying it showed threats made against Russia were only "empty words", Interfax news agency reported.

"The document itself is restrained," the agency quoted Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian Ambassador to Nato, as telling a Russian television network, in reference to a statement approved by Nato foreign ministers on the conflict.

"On the whole, all of these threats that have been raining down on Russia turned out to be empty words," he said. He used an idiomatic expression to compare Tuesday's Nato meeting to a "mountain that gave birth to a mouse".

Rogozin spoke after Nato foreign ministers agreed that the bloc "cannot continue business as usual" with Russia, calling for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia.

"The Alliance is considering seriously the implications of Russia's actions for the Nato-Russia relationship," the 26 Nato foreign ministers said in a joint statement following crisis talks in Brussels.