Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday suggested the United States pushed Georgia towards war and said he suspects a connection to the American presidential campaign.

In a Russian news agency report he said the US seemingly encouraged Georgia to use force to resolve its dispute with separatist South Ossetia.

ITAR-Tass quotes Mr Putin as acidly suggesting the US felt it would be easier to arm one side and push it to "murder" than to engage in painstaking talks.

The report also quotes Mr Putin as saying he suspects somebody in the US provoked the conflict to give one of the candidates an edge in the US presidential election. He apparently did not name a party or candidate, or provide evidence.

Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed to have won a diplomatic victory yesterday by securing the backing of China and key central Asian states for Russia's actions in Georgia and its breakaway regions.

The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), a loose security grouping comprising the two Eurasian powers and four of their Asian neighbours, said it "supports Russia's active role in contributing to peace and co-operation in the region".

The organisation, which is holding its annual summit in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, has little formal power but is seen by some in Moscow and Washington as the basis for a new counterweight to Nato.

Its support for Russia was hedged with a demand for a peaceful solution to the crisis, and followed a clear expression of concern by China at Moscow's recognition of the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But it was strong enough for Mr Medvedev to declare: "We are sure that the position of SCO members will get an appropriate international response. I hope it will serve as a serious signal for those who try to turn black into white and justify the bloody adventure of the Georgian leadership."

Russia has sought to build up allegiances in the East the more it has become isolated from European opinion and the more it has seen both Nato and democratic reform encroach on territory formerly controlled by the Soviet Union.

Four members of the SCO -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- were once Soviet republics. They have to play a delicate balancing game between their former master and the US.

China's own concern about Russia's behaviour in Georgia is clearer. It regards any support for breakaway regions as a dangerous precedent as it seeks to prevent separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang, and an all-out declaration of independence by Taiwan. These fears were reflected in the wording of the summit communique.

"The presidents reaffirmed their commitment to the principles of respect for historic and cultural traditions of every country and efforts aimed at preserving the unity of a state and its territorial integrity," it said.

Nevertheless, the wording was vague enough for Russia to be able to sign up to it, while there was never any serious chance that the other states would follow Russia by recognising South Ossetia and Abkhazia immediately.

European Union nations are united in condemning Russia's move to recognise rebel regions of Georgia but are mostly reluctant to impose tough sanctions on Moscow at an emergency summit next Monday, diplomats said.

"I do not think there is unanimous appetite for it (sanctioning Russia)," said one EU diplomat after a meeting yesterday of ambassadors from the bloc's 27 states to prepare the half-day summit in Brussels.