Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia plans to renew its request for Russian recognition of its independence as Russian troops retain control of much of Georgia in defiance of Western calls to withdraw.

``This time we hope for a quicker response,'' Sergei Shamba, foreign minister of the self-proclaimed republic, said today by telephone from the capital Sukhumi. ``We're doing our bit by continuing to ask Russia to recognize our independence.'' Abkhazia has previously asked Russia for recognition, most recently in March.

Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said ``the situation hasn't improved.'' Western and Georgian officials say Russian troops remain in control of about a third of Georgia, including the Black Sea port of Poti. Lomaia said Russian troops aren't allowing Georgian officials to enter Gori, a major crossroads between east and west Georgia. Russian officials say troops are pulling back to South Ossetia.

Russia's incursion into Georgia began on Aug. 8 after a day of heavy fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia. Georgia lost 215 soldiers in the fighting, while Russia reported revised figures of 64 dead and 323 wounded. South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in wars in the early 1990s. At the start of the conflict, Russia had 588 peacekeepers in South Ossetia under a 1992 agreement and 2,452 in Abkhazia, according to the military.

Missile Shield

Russia's decision to send troops into Georgia prompted Poland to sign an agreement today with the U.S. to host American interceptor missiles as part of a planned missile shield. Russia regards the system as a threat to its security and has threatened to target the installation with ballistic missiles.

The National Bank of Georgia cut its benchmark interest rate by one percentage point to 11 percent to promote economic growth and increase liquidity following the fighting with Russia, the bank said in a statement.

Georgian Black Sea ports are running out of crude and oil- product supplies as Russian troops block railways near the city of Khashuri, Vako Kavzharadze, an agent at TeRo Co. Ltd. in the Georgian port of Batumi, said today in an e-mailed statement. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, denied the claim. ``Why would we block a railway? We haven't done that,'' he told reporters in Moscow.

National Assembly

Shamba said Abkhazia's parliament will meet today to discuss the appeal to Medvedev. A national assembly tomorrow in Sukhumi will officially send the appeal to the Russian leader, he said.

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, is prepared to support requests for recognition from Abkhazia and South Ossetia if Medvedev gives his backing, the Interfax news service reported, citing speaker Sergei Mironov. Both regions have asked for Russian recognition, citing Kosovo as a precedent.

Medvedev met with South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity and Sergei Bagapsh, the leader of Abkhazia, on Aug. 14 and said Russia will support the regions' decisions about their future status. No country has recognized either region.

Buffer Zone

Most Russian troops will start pulling back to South Ossetia and Russia after construction of checkpoints and peacekeeper bases is completed by Aug. 22, Medvedev told his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday.

Nogovitsyn said Russian peacekeepers are placing a line of eight posts at the edge of a buffer zone in Georgia and will place a second line along the administrative border of South Ossetia. The city of Gori is located 40 kilometers from the buffer zone, which was established in a 1992 agreement between Georgia and Russia, he said.

Russia has no plans to return weapons and hardware seized in Georgia, Nogovitsyn said.

Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said that while there has been ``no shortage of rhetoric'' from U.S. officials ``there doesn't seem to be any effective leverage that the West can use'' to force a Russian withdrawal. ``This conflict has clearly shown the limits of American influence and power,'' she said.

NATO Response

Those limitations were on display yesterday at an emergency meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers in Brussels. The ministers condemned the Russian incursion and canceled any NATO-Russian meetings until it ends.

``There can be no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances,'' Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.

Far from pulling out, the Russian military is sharpening its threat to Georgia. It has moved more than a dozen SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia, according to a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. This may put the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in range of the missiles, which can fly as far as 75 miles (120 kilometers), according to the Federation of American Scientists' Web site.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Aug. 14 that ``this is no longer 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, when a great power invaded a small neighbor and overthrew its government.'' NATO ``is not going to permit a new line to be drawn in Europe'' between those in the alliance and those outside it, she said yesterday.

Cold War

At the same time, the U.S. declined to push for putting NATO membership for Georgia or Ukraine, another former Soviet republic, on a fast track, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the European Union wouldn't reconsider its support for Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization. NATO earlier this year offered the two countries the possibility of eventual membership.

The conflict has become the sharpest confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. Georgia became a western ally on Russia's border in part because it is an emerging corridor for oil and natural-gas shipments from the Caspian Sea region to Europe, skirting Russia.

To contact the reporters on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi hbedwell@bloomberg.net; Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 20, 2008 08:07 EDT