GENEVA: Georgia has told the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it may not allow any further meetings of the working party preparing Russia's membership of the trade body until their bilateral problems are resolved.

In a letter to the chairman of the working party, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, Georgia said Russia was applying "unjustifiable trade restrictive measures" to imports of Georgian goods, particularly wine and agricultural produce.

Relations between the two former areas of the Soviet Union are tense, and Moscow cut transport and post links with the smaller Caucasian nation after Georgia's brief detention of four Russian army officers on spying charges last month.

In the letter, sent to Iceland's former WTO ambassador Stefan Johannesson, who continues to chair Moscow's entry negotiations, Georgia said it had sought bilateral talks with Russia to try to resolve the trade and diplomatic problems.

"We have not been able to receive yet the positive response from our Russian colleagues," the letter said. "In such circumstances ... it does not seem to be possible for the Georgian delegation to hold any meeting of the working party on the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO in the near future," it read.

Georgia, which in July demanded the re-opening of bilateral negotiations on Russia's WTO entry previously considered closed, had long warned that it might try to block progress in the talks over what it said were mounting trade problems.

But the letter appeared to be its first concrete move to slow the process.

All decisions in the 149-state global trade watchdog are by consensus, which gives every member state a veto. Russia, the largest economy still outside the WTO, has stepped up efforts to conclude entry negotiations that began 13 years ago.—Reuters