Georgia's defiant breakaway region Ossetia votes

The breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia was voting for a new parliament yesterday, brushing off new President Mikhail Saakashvili's pledge to unite his fractured Caucasus nation.

Mountainous South Ossetia is one of two Georgian regions that broke away in bloody wars in the early 1990s. It rejects Tbilisi's rule and wants unity with northern neighbour Russia.

Mr Saakashvili has already driven out the leader of the Black Sea Adzhara region, which had never declared independence but was beyond central government control, but analysts say South Ossetia and Abkhazia will be harder to rein in.

The South Ossetian economy has crumbled along with its roads, and houses in the capital Tskhinvali still bear 13-year-old bullet scars, but local leader Eduard Kokoity said his region would never bow to rule from Tbilisi.

"Our only task is to join the Russian Federation," he told journalists at a polling station, fresh from laying flowers at a monument to the "Victims of Georgian Aggression".

"Money cannot buy off our fight for independence from Georgia. Our desire to join Russia is not for sale. If there are any provocations from Georgia, our reaction will be strong."

Mr Saakashvili swept to power after leading a bloodless "rose revolution" in November.

The 36-year-old, who is backed by western countries keen to see stability in a country which is becoming a major oil transit route, pledges to end corruption, introduce western-style reforms and establish Tbilisi's rule across the whole country.

A top Georgian official pledged yesterday to maintain the government's drive to resolve the South Ossetian stand-off.

"The elections cannot be legitimate because... the whole world does not recognise them," Goga Khaindrava, the minister in charge of relations with the breakaway regions, said.

"Talks with the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali to regulate the Georgian-Ossetian conflict will continue."

Many Georgians say some officials in Moscow tacitly back the South Ossetian independence drive and at least one Russian member of parliament was observing the elections.