The United States revealed Thursday it was pushing for a high-level meeting involving Europe, Russia and Georgia over the next few weeks in a bid to revive direct Georgia-Abkhaz peace talks.
Washington and Moscow have traded accusations of fanning tensions in Georgia, where violence has flared in the past week in Abkhazia, one of two regions that broke from Tbilisi after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But Washington tamped down its rhetoric on Wednesday as it disclosed a new drive to defuse a crisis which US officials privately warn could reignite an armed conflict that raged in the early 1990s.
"I believe there is a way to resolve this peacefully," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a press conference in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi when she announced plans for the high-level talks.
The political directors of the US, German, British, French, Russian and Georgian foreign ministries could meet this month on the crisis, a senior State Department official told reporters travelling back to Washington with Rice.
The official said Washington's proposal also calls for the United Nations and the European Union to be represented at the talks -- where no venue has been given yet -- as well as Abkhaz separatists.
Another US official said the so-called "Friends of the UN Secretary General" on Georgia could meet "within a month." Number-three diplomat William Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, would represent the US.
The officials spoke before a refuelling stop in Shannon, Ireland, as Rice returned to the US capital following her visit to Tbilisi at the end of a three-country European tour.
Though she did not give a time frame, Rice told the press conference in Tbilisi that low-grade talks needed to move quickly to a higher level.
She said she had told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili -- who stood by her side at the news conference -- about the US proposal to "elevate the issue" of Abkhazia.
"The United States is working very closely, particularly with the Germans but also other members of the 'friends,' to try and get a peace process back on line," the top US diplomat said in the Georgian capital.
"I'm going to call for discussions to be held at a higher level, at least at the level of political directors or perhaps beyond that, because this is a serious situation," Rice said.
The senior State Department official disclosed that Rice herself and her "friends" counterparts could eventually meet.
Rice said US diplomat Matt Bryza was in the Caucasus recently to discuss ideas on which to base the talks, including ways to de-escalate the crisis, end Georgia's isolation, and involve Georgians and Abkhazians directly.
Russia has slapped economic sanctions on Georgia and closed the land border.
Rice said any peace effort must respect Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty as US diplomats accused Russia of risking becoming a party to the conflict with an increased military presence in Abkhazia.
Rice also said "the Abkhaz deserve to know that they will have prospects for a better future and the United States is prepared on that element of this as well," but did not say what she meant.
Though both the United States and Russia have each accused the other of fanning the flames in Abkhazia that they warn could erupt into war, Rice was more restrained at Thursday's press conference in Tbilisi.
"The violence needs to stop. And whoever is perpetrating it... there should not be violence," Rice said. "It is very important that all parties reject violence as an option."
