Georgian authorities are against a hasty decision to pull out of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said on Monday.

"The matter of leaving the CIS should not be tied to Georgia's strained relations with Russia. The CIS is not only Russia, there is a whole number of states with which we have the relations of strategic partnership," Bezhuashvili was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

The CIS, which groups all former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states, was set up after the break-up of the Soviet Union to try to maintain economic and political ties. Georgia joined in 1993, but parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze has said Georgia now has no reason to remain a member.

The Georgian minister said the CIS "has largely lost its original intention," which includes free trade, free movement of citizens and foreign policy coordination, but Georgian authorities are not going to make "an emotional and hasty decision" on leaving the CIS.

"A time of Georgia leaving the CIS has not yet come; we shall make such decisions when it will be the least painful for Georgia," Bezhuashvili said.

Georgia and Russia are locked in a bitter dispute triggered by the brief detention of Russian officers in the Caucasus nation on spying charges in late September.

Moscow, infuriated by the arrests, has imposed an economic blockade on Tbilisi by cutting transport and postal links, and has deported Georgians accused of staying in Russia illegally.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006）