New York  - The United Nations mission in Georgia was ordered to leave that country on Tuesday after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to extend the mission's mandate.

Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin vetoed the draft resolution supported by Germany, Austria, Croatia, France, Turkey, Britain and the United States, capping months of intense fighting between Moscow and countries that supported Georgia's independence.

Ten council members supported a short extension of two weeks for the mission, but the Russian veto killed the draft. Four countries abstained: China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued the order for the UN Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), composed mostly of military observers, to cease its operations effective Tuesday.

He said in a statement that he regretted the council's failure to "reach an agreement on the basis of a package of practical and realistic proposals ... contributing to a stabilization of the situation on the ground."

The rift between Russia and the United States, Germany, France and Britain began after the brief August war last year pitting Russian troops against Georgia over the break-away provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two Georgian provinces inhabited by white Russians that have seceded from Tbilisi.

Moscow has recognized the independence of those two enclaves and put demands on the UN to rename the mission and give it a new mandate that would recognize the two territories. Western governments rejected the demands.

"There was no sense in extending it (mission) since it had been built on old realities," Churkin told the council before he cast the negative vote, which amounted to a veto because Russia is a permanent member of the council. "Security could only be achieved through a new regime."

"Bearing in mind the new political and legal conditions, the majority of old terms and terminology in the documents could not be accepted," Churkin said in reference to proposals by Western governments.

The UN mission in Georgia had been monitoring the ceasefire along border between Abkhazia and Georgia proper since the end of August last year. Negotiations to work out a new mandate failed to bridge differences between the two sides, with Western governments demanding respect of Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty while Moscow rejected the government in Tbilisi. (dpa)