Russia expressed on Tuesday bewilderment over a recent statement by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on a foreign aggression against his country.

Saakashvili told graduates of the country's national defense academy on Saturday that they should "be ready for a large-scale foreign aggression on Georgian soil."

"If the Georgian president meant Russia, it is absolutely unclear and unacceptable," the foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.

"It is Russia that has been working hard for the past 12 years to prevent bloodshed from happening again and to prevent a brother-killing war between the people of (South) Ossetia and Georgia," Yakovenko noted.

He said the Russian peacekeeping force deployed in the conflict zone between Georgia's self-run province of South Ossetia and Georgia has prevented the situation in the area from getting out of control.

The Russian Foreign Ministry later Tuesday also demanded Georgia unimpeded passage for Russia's humanitarian convoy in South Ossetia.

"Russia has protested the seizure of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry humanitarian convoy and demands that the Georgian authorities immediately let the convoy continue on its way," the ministry said in a statement.

The new statement came after Georgian policemen blocked the passage of a Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, and some of the republic's villages on Tuesday.

Georgian President Saakashvili, who is now on a visit to Britain, told reporters in London that Moscow should negotiate its plans to deliver humanitarian aid to South Ossetia, according to Interfax.

Georgia "has not been sending humanitarian aid to Chechnya or any other Russian region without Moscow's agreement," he was quoted as saying.

South Ossetia won de-facto independence from Georgia following a bloody war that ended in 1992. It has repeatedly refused to start unification talks with the central government, vowing to be a part of Russia.

A joint peacekeeping contingent, composed of Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian troops, has been patrolling a conflict area between Georgia and South Ossetia since then.

Tensions between Georgia and South Ossetia have risen in recentmonths.

Saakashvili has vowed to reunify the country by bringing South Ossetia and another rebel region Abkhazia back under control.

Russia insists that it respects Georgia's territorial integrity and does not support the attempt of South Ossetia, whose independence has not been internationally recognized.

Georgia accuses Russia of aiding South Ossetian separatists. Itdetained two Russian military trucks carrying several hundreds of missiles and other armaments last Tuesday in South Ossetia. So farit has not returned them to Russia despite Russia's strong demand.

Russia and Georgia have vowed to avoid any complicating situation around South Ossetia. Earlier on Tuesday Georgian National Security Council Secretary Gela Bezhuashvili arrived in Moscow for talks on ways to put an end to the conflict with South Ossetia.

Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov told reporters following talks with Bezhuashvili that Moscow is opposed to the use of force in settling the conflict.

"The use of force can hardly help," Ivanov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

"This may lead to tragedy and death," he warned.

Source: Xinhua