Berlin -

Washington, Sept. 5: U. S. President George W. Bush is reportedly ready to punish Russia for its invasion of Georgia by canceling a once-celebrated deal for civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

According to The Telegraph, the White House is planning to undertake this largely symbolic move, and it is expected that action could come quickly, within days at the most.

However, officials see no need to wait until Vice President Dick Cheney returns next Wednesday from an overseas trip to three former Soviet republics.

London/Moscow - Energy giant British Petroleum (BP) has moved to resolve its long-standing dispute with Russia over the TNK-BP joint venture and said controversial chief financial manager Robert Dudley would leave his post by the end of the year.

BP said it had agreed to a memorandum of understanding that envisaged the restructuring of the TNK-BP board through the appointment of three new directors independent of either side of TNK-BP's two principal owners, BP and Alfa Access-Renova (AAR).

The aim was to "better align their respective interests and improve the transparency if TNK-BP's equity."

Tbilisi, Georgia - US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in the capital of Georgia on Thursday in a show of support for the pro- Western government after Russian troops pushed into the former Soviet state in a brief war over its separatist regions.

Cheney is the highest ranking US official to visit Georgia since the fighting in mid-August and his visit is timed with Washington's announcement that it was boosting aid to the former Soviet republic.

Managua - The leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua became the second country - after Russia - to recognize the break- away Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The president of the Central American country, Daniel Ortega, said late Tuesday before the leadership of the Nicaraguan Army that he supports the plan by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to bring these territories closer to Russia.

Moscow - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Poland to discuss a controversial US anti-missile defence system, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Russia's top diplomat also was likely in talks with Polish leadership to lay out the Kremlin's position on the South Ossetia war, according to the report.