Analysts said Medvedev's comments -- some of his sharpest to date -- reflected Moscow's bitter disappointment with NATO's decision just weeks after he and US President Barack Obama hailed a new era in US-Russian ties.

"I think this is a wrong decision, a dangerous decision," Medvedev said of the planned exercises next month, at a news conference with visiting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

"Such decisions are disappointing and do not facilitate the resumption of full-scale contacts between the Russian Federation and NATO," a stern Medvedev said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation announced earlier this week that it would hold exercises in Georgia from May 6 to June 1 to improve cooperation between the alliance and partner countries.

Medvedev warned the exercises could cause "different kinds of complications" as tensions in the region still persisted and could threaten a recent thaw in Russia-NATO relations.

"This decision appears to be short-sighted, unpartner-like," Medvedev said, noting that holding the war games in Georgia would be akin to conducting military maneouvres in the Middle East or next to North Korea.

"I am sure that it will not add positive emotions either to the people of South Ossetia or the people of Abkhazia," Medvedev said, referring to the two breakaway regions of Georgia backed by Moscow.

"Decisions of this kind are aimed at muscle flexing. We will follow what happens there in the most thorough manner and take one or another decision if need be."

Following talks on April 1 in London, Medvedev praised his "new comrade" Obama as Moscow and Washington both said they hoped to reverse the worst slump in the former foes' ties since the end of the Cold War.

NATO's plan to hold the war games in Georgia, with which Moscow fought a five-day bitter war last August, is likely to deal a blow to the US-Russia efforts to mend fences, analysts said.

The bloc agreed last month to resume high-level talks with Russia, ending a seven-month freeze sparked by Moscow's decision to send troops into Georgia last summer.

A meeting of the so-called NATO-Russia Council was expected in late May or early June.

The exercises, which have been planned since the spring of 2008, are to involve about 1,300 people from 19 NATO and partner countries and will be held at a training centre 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Tbilisi.

Moscow has been extremely wary of any cooperation between NATO and Georgia, a former Soviet republic whose pro-Western government has pushed hard to join the alliance.

Russia and Georgia fought a brief war last yeart over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia later recognised as independent states.

Analysts said Moscow, which had high hopes for the Obama presidency, felt cheated to a large degree.

"Our (leaders) did not expect this to happen," said Alexei Malashenko, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Centre. "They thought that because of a thaw the manoeuvres would not take place.

"Naturally, it causes a high degree of irritation. This is a gift to all those who've been against rapprochement with the West."

Timofei Bordachyov, head of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, said Medvedev's reaction was "natural".

"NATO will conduct the war games jointly with a country which can be declared an aggressor in its war with Russia," he said.

Rebel Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh told reporters in Moscow that his breakaway republic and South Ossetia would likely reciprocate with similar war games that would involve Russia to counter NATO exercises in Georgia.

"Today the countries in the West are supporting Georgia, hold the war games, but there is a response to the games -- we will conduct different games both in Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Interfax quoted Bagapsh as saying.

"Believe me, there will be the same accents, the same responses."

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