TAMARASHENI, Georgia, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - The head of a pro-Georgian administration in the ex-Soviet republic's breakaway region of South Ossetia called on foreign governments Friday to pressure Russia into dropping its support for rebel separatists.

'We appeal to the international community to do all it can to prevent Russia from providing support to the (rebel) regime,' Dmitry Sanakoyev told Western diplomats gathered in the Georgian-controlled village of Tamarasheni, only a few hundred metres (yards) from the separatist capital Tskhinvali.