Miliband holds talks with Georgian opposition

The first British minister to visit Georgia since the Russian invasion made a point of meeting opposition leaders yesterday as public discontent over Mikheil Saakashvili's role in the conflict grew.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, spent more than an hour with oppo-sition politicians, a move that is seen as the West opening up channels to those who might take control in the future. Although the US and European governments have publicly backed Mr Saakashvili, his tactics, which allowed the Russians to score a strategic victory over Nato, have been called into question.

A Western diplomat said: "As soon as the Russians are out, Saakashvili is finished."

Republican Party chairman David Usupashvili said that opposition figures had been quiet up to now because they didn't want to play into the Kremlin's hands. But he blamed Mr Saakashvili's "militaristic approach" for provoking the crisis. "We have spent more than a quarter of the state budget on [the] military over the past few years," said Mr Usupashvili. "Russia was trying to provoke us but we should have avoided direct confrontation."

One potential successor is Nino Burjanadze, former speaker of the Georgian parliament, who split from Mr Saakashvili earlier this year and has considerable support inside Georgia and beyond. Having taken time out of politics, she has carefully avoiding criticising Mr Saakashvili directly while making it clear that she will soon be returning to politics in opposition.

ADRIAN HAMILTON, PAGE 37

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