WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (AFP) - The United States is eyeing tensions between Georgia and separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia while hoping US influence with Georgia's new president can halt broader armed conflict in the Caucasus.
"The Americans are certainly not encouraging a military operation," said Helmut Sonnenfeldt, an expert on the former Soviet Union with the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"The situation is delicate and very unpredictable," he added. "At the end, (President Mikhail) Saakashvili is cautious, but he would maybe respond to a Russian provocation."
The breakaway republic of Abkhazia, which is seen as close to Moscow, and South Ossetia, a separatist enclave that wants to reunify with North Ossetia, which is part of Russia, are watching Saakashvili's policies with concern.
The young Georgian leader was educated in the US capital and has often taken advice from the United States.
But Saakashvili's ties to Washington, which he visited in early August, and the new Georgian government are viewed with suspicion in Moscow.
Russia does not appreciate attempts by the United States to infringe upon "legitimate interests" in the Caucasus, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loschinin told the Duma when Saakashvili was in Washington.
He said US influence in Georgia has been on the rise, and this was not to Russia's liking.
"The Georgians and the Russians have had meetings and discussions about it, and we have certainly encouraged them all to try to work this out and reach arrangements that avoid raising tensions and avoid potential clashes between them," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
According to Sonnenfeldt, it was one way to tell Saakashvili to refrain from answering provocations in his quest for reunification of the country in order not to foreclose the possibility for Tbilisi to join NATO and the European Union.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed the Russian government Monday to ease tensions with Georgia over South Ossetia, the State Department said.
In a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Powell highlighted US concerns about the situation in South Ossetia, where there have been deadly firefights between Georgian troops and pro-Russian Ossetian gunmen, deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"They reviewed developments there," Ereli told reporters, adding that the United States and Russia were "working with the parties to promote a dialogue and a peaceful resolution of the issues in South Ossetia."
In addition, Washington is closely monitoring the building of an oil pipeline between Baku, Tbilisi and the Turkish port city of Ceyhan, which is slated to be completed in the second quarter of 2005.
The pipeline is to carry up to one million barrels a day of Caspian oil extracted in Azerbaijan through Georgia to a terminal in the Mediterranean.
The United States is taking part in this strategic, high-value project, and clashes in the region threaten its future, Sonnenfeldt said.