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Dushanbe: Russia's president appealed to the leaders of China and four Central Asian countries for support Thursday amid the fallout over Moscow's invasion of Georgia and its recognition of the country's separatist regions.
Speaking at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in this impoverished country, President Dmitry Medvedev called Georgia the aggressor in the conflict and said support for Russia would serve as a "serious signal for those who are trying to justify the aggression."
Medvedev's appeal came as Western leaders accuse Russia of using excessive force by sending troops into Georgia earlier this month after a Georgian crackdown on the pro-Russian South Ossetia.
European nations and the United States have also criticized Russian troops' continued presence in Georgia near the two separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Moscow's recognition of them as independent republics.
Russian leaders, meanwhile, have blamed Nato expansion and Western support for Georgia for raising the specter of a new Cold War.
China and the other Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - were expected to stop short of endorsing Medvedev's recognition of the regions.
Medvedev discussed the situation in Georgia with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday, Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova said.
China has traditionally been wary of supporting separatist movements, mindful of its own problems with Tibet and what it describes as radicals seeking to establish a Muslim state in the western territory of Xinjiang.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying "the situation in the region...should be resolved in dialogue."
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, told reporters Wednesday that China's refusal to recognize South Ossetia or Abkhazia did not mean that China was joining Western opposition to Russia's actions in Georgia.
The other nations in the alliance may be reluctant to strain their relations with Europe and the United States.
The Asian alliance was created in 2001 as a forum for its members to improve regional coordination on terrorism and border security.
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