Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili will not attend the Moscow celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili said in Moscow Friday.

Zurabishvili made the announcement after the talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, failed to yield an agreement on a timetable for the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia, which wants the pullout completed in 2008.

"Very important issues have been left unagreed. As progress has been not been made, the president will not fly to Russia," she told reporters.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was ready to keep searching for a deal on the bases and that the two countries would meet again soon.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has withdrawn two of its four military bases in Georgia.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2005)