Paris - As the European Union prepared to hold an emergency summit on the Caucasus crisis Monday Georgia's ambassador to France called for Russia to be given a "last chance" before any possible sanctions.

"We are realistic," Mamuka Kudava told the daily Le Parisien. "One has to give the Russians a last chance, so that they are obligated to take heed of the six-point agreement decided with (EU council president Nicolas) Sarkozy on August 12."

The agreement calls for a ceasefire, Russian troop withdrawal and international talks over the security of Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Moscow - Just hours before a European Union emergency summit on the crisis in Georgia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the situation on the telephone, the agency Interfax reported late Sunday.

The two leaders focussed on the disputed buffer zones held by the Russian Army on Georgian territory along the two breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, according to the report from Interfax, which cited presidium officials in Moscow.

Berlin  - Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has warned in an interview with a German magazine against appeasing Russia, but also said he would not support sanctions against Moscow.

The news weekly Der Spiegel released the text Saturday. It quoted Schwarzenberg saying Prague supported a rapid admission of Georgia to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), saying delay over this had only encouraged Russia to establish facts on the ground.

Tehran - A senior Iranian general warned the United States of the consequences of its interference in the Caucasus crisis, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Saturday.

Deputy chief of staff General Masoud Jazayeri said that after Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States had caused another global crisis in the Caucasus.

"The greed of the US leadership is gradually leading the world towards the brink of ruin," the general said. In such a situation, any military attack on Iran would be "the start of a world war."

Brussels - Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze plans to meet European Union officials and country leaders during a visit to Brussels next week, the Georgian embassy in Brussels said Friday.

The visit coincides with Monday's emergency meeting of EU heads of state and government, who will be discussing the consequences of the conflict between Georgia and Russia.

Gurgenidze plans to hold "a series of bilateral meetings with EU leaders", an official from the Georgian embassy told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

Moscow  - Russia on Friday rejected the criticism of fellow G8 members as biased and orchestrated to justify Georgian "aggression," but said it aimed to keep its spot among the world's top industrialized nations.

The G7 foreign ministers roundly condemned this week for recognizing of Georgia's separatist regions as a violation of the former Soviet state's sovereignty.