Tbilisi Offers Abkhazia, South Ossetia Federal Arrangement

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili instructed the government on December 17 to develop an Abkhazian and South Ossetian conflict resolution plan which will envisage, as Saakashvili put it, the ?widest form of status? for these breakaway regions in the ?common state? of Georgia.

The government should prepare this peace plan by February, 2005.

President Saakashvili was addressing a session of the Georgian National Security Council late on December 17, which was broadcasted by the Georgian televisions.

President Saakashvili said that the Georgian government, local and Abkhaz and South Ossetian non-governmental organizations, political leaders and ?even minor political parties? should be engaged in the process of outlining this peace plan.

?We should offer them the widest form of status in the common, united Georgian state, I mean a federal arrangement. We need this document so that no one can say any more: you want to restore your territorial integrity, but what are you offering Abkhazians and Ossetians?? President Saakashvili said.