Tbilisi  - President Mikheil Saakashvili Tuesday urged Georgians to pursue "peaceful resistance" to Russia after Moscow's decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent.

Georgia could rely on international support, as there was no legal basis to the decision announced by Russian President Dimitry Medvedev earlier in the day, Saakashvili said in an address on state television.

"Now everyone knows that the Russian leadership respects no laws and is not deploying peacekeeping troops," he said.

Georgia's territorial integrity was inviolable, Saakashvili said.

The Georgian president said he had received signals of support from Georgia's international partners that it could look forward to accelerated accession to NATO and the European Union.

"The whole world is behind Georgia," he said. (dpa)