Brussels  - Russia's recent decision to strengthen ties with breakaway regions in Georgia erodes the Caucasus state's territorial integrity, a top European Union official said on Monday just hours after Russia inaugurated a new president.

"The recent decisions taken by the Russian Federation on strengthening links with the separatist de facto authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia do represent an erosion of Georgia's territorial integrity," EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the European Parliament.

"These measures have increased expectations of future recognition in the two separatist regions and therefore undermined efforts to find a peaceful solution," she said.

Ferrero-Waldner delivered her strongly-worded message in a debate on the spiralling tensions in the South Caucasus which parliamentarians had added to their agenda at the last minute.

She was speaking just hours after the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's third post-Communist president, in an apparent sign that the EU is not going to lower its tone on the issue to give the newcomer time to settle in.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, "calls on the Russian Federation to withdraw" its decision to deal directly with the two breakaway areas, or at least not to implement it, Ferrero-Waldner said bluntly.

"We should concentrate now on how to stop this chess game, where each move provokes a counter-move," she said.

Tensions between Georgia, its breakaway regions and Russia have soared since February, when Georgia's separatists said that they saw Kosovo's declaration of independence as a direct precedent.

The situation soured on April 16, when Moscow decided to forge official ties with the two breakaway republics, and went further downhill on April 20, when Georgia accused Russia of shooting down one of its unmanned planes over Abkhazia.

European concerns have also been raised by Russia's subsequent decision to send hundreds more of its troops as peacekeepers into the separatist zones, and the reported flight of a Russian unmanned spy aircraft into Georgian airspace.

On April 29 EU foreign ministers called on all sides in the conflict to exercise restraint.

But on the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia suspected that Georgia was planning to launch a war in Abkhazia. If it did, Russia would retaliate, he said.

While EU officials have repeatedly stressed that they are committed to upholding Georgia's territorial integrity, Ferrero- Waldner urged caution, saying that "we need to beware of taking symbolic actions that might not improve the chances for a solution of the crisis." (dpa)