US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to fly into ex-Soviet Georgia on Wednesday as tensions rose between Washington and Moscow over the strategic Caucasus state.
Officials said Rice would arrive for dinner with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose efforts to integrate his country into the NATO alliance have prompted consternation in Moscow.
Russia on Wednesday accused Washington of fanning tensions around two separatist Georgian areas that have Russia's formal backing and said the Georgian leadership was taking the Caucasus region to the brink of war.
Those who "shield the provocateurs and blame everything on Moscow are doing a great disservice to the Georgian leadership and strengthening its sense of impunity," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"That is the only way to assess recent comments from representatives of the US State Department."
On the eve of her visit Rice fired off her own broadside, saying that recent Russian actions had worsened the situation in Georgia.
"Frankly some of the things the Russians did over the last couple of months added to tension in the region," Rice said in Prague.
"Georgia is an independent state. It has to be treated like one."
Rice's visit came amid wider tensions with Russia over former communist-controlled territories, as the US secretary of state Tuesday signed a deal with the Czech Republic to set up missile defence facilities in that country, prompting a sharp reaction from Moscow.
Ahead of her arrival, Saakashvili accused Russia of "flagrant violation" of Georgia's territorial integrity and said Rice's visit would help Georgia's development.
He also reiterated his commitment to peaceful settlement of the conflict with the Russian-backed separatist territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"I want to call on our friends to increase diplomatic efforts ten-fold in order to prevent the attempts at annexation and illegal occupation of Georgian territory," Saakashvili said in televised comments at a national security council meeting.
On the ground in Georgia tensions have spiralled in recent days.
On Tuesday the separatist leaders of Georgia's South Ossetia region detained four Georgian soldiers.
And last week a series of bomb attacks in Abkhazia killed four people and injured 16 others.
Wednesday's statement by Russia said Georgia may have been involved in the bomb attacks.
"The signs available suggest that in some of them, the Georgian side may have been involved," the foreign ministry statement said.
Georgia has strongly denied earlier accusations by the Abkhaz side of involvement in the bomb blasts.
The current tensions come after Russia moved to establish formal ties with Georgia's separatist regions in April, inspired in part by Western support for Kosovan independence.
Moscow has a peacekeeping contingent in Abkhazia that Georgia accuses of propping up the rebels.
Behind the conflict lies Georgia's efforts to integrate with the West and join the NATO alliance.
Russia strongly opposes Georgian membership of NATO, seeing it as an infringement on its traditional sphere of influence.
In April Georgia had an application for approval of its Membership Action Plan, a formal step towards membership, turned down at a NATO summit at which Russian president Vladimir Putin was present as a guest.
With strong US backing, Georgia hopes to get approval for the plan at a lower profile meeting of NATO foreign ministers in December.
