CARACAS, Sept 7: Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval manoeuvres with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday.

Quoting Venezuela’s naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian ships would visit Venezuelan waters from Nov. 10 to 14.

Plans for the naval operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Moscow and the United States over the recent war in Georgia and plans for a US missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Cammarata said it would be the first time Russia’s navy carried out such exercises in Latin America. He said the Venezuelan air force would also take part.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, has said in recent weeks that Russian ships and planes are welcome to visit the South American country.

“If the Russian long-distance planes that fly around the world need to land at some Venezuelan landing strip, they are welcome, we have no problems,” he said on his weekly television show last week.

Chavez, who buys billions of dollars of weapons from Russia, has criticized this year’s reactivation of the US Navy’s Fourth Fleet, which will patrol Latin America for the first time in over 50 years.

The socialist Chavez says he fears the United States will invade oil-rich Venezuela and he supports Russia’s growing geopolitical presence as a counterbalance to US power.

Chavez has bought fighter jets and submarines from Russia to retool Venezuela’s aging weapons and says he is also interested in a missile defence system.

Sarkozy’s visit: Russia and Georgia were on Sunday awaiting a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy aimed at shoring up an uneasy truce in the Caucasus.

Sarkozy, whose nation holds the EU presidency, will go first to Moscow, then to Tbilisi against the backdrop of souring relations between Russia and the United States reflected in increasingly tough rhetoric over the weekend.

Moscow’s mayor Yury Luzhkov entered the fray on Sunday, saying the “crushing” defence that Russia mounted against Nazi Germany during World War II should serve as a warning to Georgia and the United States, its main ally.

“Let that be a stern and appropriate reminder to those who surround Russia with their missiles and bases,” Luzhkov said.

Referring to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, he added: “Let it be a warning to Saakashvili’s regime.” Sarkozy -- who dashed to Moscow and Tbilisi five days after the conflict erupted on August 7 to broker a ceasefire that has failed to see a full retreat of Russian troops -- will be joined this time around by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

In particular, he will seek Russian acceptance of an EU observer mission in Georgia and the setting of a date for international talks on the future of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

A Nato delegation was meanwhile expected on Monday to visit Georgia -- which has an open-ended promise of membership in the transatlantic alliance -- to evaluate damage to military infrastructure.

In the toughest talk yet to come out of the Bush administration, US Vice President Dick Cheney accused Russia on Saturday of “brutality” and seeking Soviet-style dominance.

For his part, speaking to senior officials at the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev declared that “Russia is a state that has to be reckoned with from now on” and that the “world changed” when the Georgia conflict erupted.

It was on the night of August 7 -- as world attention was focused on the start of the Beijing Olympics -- that Georgia began its attempt to regain control of the Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Georgian forces briefly held the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali before they were routed by Russian tanks and troops that poured through the Roki tunnel -- the only road route through the Caucasus mountains from Russia.

By August 12, when Sarkozy rushed to Moscow and Tbilisi, the Russian army — thanks in good part to overwhelming air support — had strategic control over large swathes of Georgia, a key corridor for Caspian Sea oil and gas exports.

Hundreds of people on both sides were killed, tens of thousands displaced from their homes, and extensive destruction wrought on Tskhinvali and surrounding villages.—Agencies