London - Russian President Dimitry Medvedev has issued a thinly veiled call for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign in an article published in the London-based Financial Times Wednesday.

Calling Saakashvili a "madman" who had murdered hundreds of largely Russian civilians in an assault on the sleeping city of Tskhinvali, Medvedev said Russians felt "historic friendship and sympathy" for Georgians in general.

Riga - The Baltic states on Tuesday condemned Russia's decision to recognize two breakaway Georgian regions, saying it would not help finding solutions for peace in the region.

Russia's decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia was a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia, Lithuania's Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said.

"Russia's move is a deliberate breach of international law and the principles of stability in Europe," Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said.

Kiev- Top Ukrainian politicians were split on Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev's recognition of the independance of the Georgian breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Pro-Russia politician Viktor Yanukovich, head of Ukraine's opposition Regions party, supported Medvedev's move, saying "Ukraine should respect the will of the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

In an Interfax news agency interview, Yanukovich said the status of the two regions was similar to Kosovo's separation from Serbia, and argued Ukraine should recognise the independence of both renegade Georgian provinces.

Ramallah - Russia's decision to recognise the independence of
Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was
"regrettable," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

"It (the decision) puts Russia in opposition to a number of (United
Nations) Security Council resolutions to which it is a party," she told
a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after meeting
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree Tuesday
recognizing the breakaway regions' independence, after Russian

Tallinn  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel sharply criticized the decision Tuesday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Speaking on a visit to the Estonian capital of Tallinn, Merkel said Medvedev's decision was "absolutely not acceptable."

Medvedev justified his decision to sign decrees recognizing the independence of the two regions on the grounds that they needed protection from Georgian aggression.

Vienna - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has started to increase the number of its observers to monitor the ceasefire in Georgia, a spokeswoman said Monday.

In addition to the eight military monitors that had been stationed in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, six officers from Finland, France and the United States have been deployed to the country in the past days, Sonya Yee said.

A total of 20 monitors will arrive within the coming days. The unarmed officers are being recruited from a pool of 23 countries, Yee said.