MOSCOW Ñ Addressing the international military-political forum "Wehrkunde" in Munich on 2 February, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that Russia "does not share the U.S. point of view that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea pose a terrorist threat to mankind," and will neither support nor take part in any military operation against them, ITAR-TASS reported.

U.S. President Bush accused those countries of being an "axis of evil" supporting terrorism during his State of the Union address on 29 January. However, Ivanov said that Russia "is very concerned by the situation in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, where Chechen fighters concentrate."

He said "the government of Georgia recognizes the existence of a problem there, but hardly can cope with it." Ivanov added that Russia, while it respects Georgia's sovereignty, "cannot tolerate near her borders pocket of terrorism and criminality."

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