Germany seeks EU meeting with Georgia neighbours

BERLIN, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Germany said on Monday it would push for a European Union conference with Georgia's neighbours to help bring stability to the region.

The proposal for the conference, which Germany said carried the working title "reconstruction and stability in Georgia and the region", comes in the midst of a debate on how Europe should deal with Russia and its neighbours over the Georgia crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Sunday the EU should intensify its contacts with Georgia, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"She particularly mentioned countries which haven't been directly included in the (EU) neighbourhood policy so far," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said, adding the idea was to extend an existing circle of the EU's eastern neighbours.

The EU's neighbourhood policy, aimed at strengthening the prosperity and stability of the enlarged bloc and its neighbours, embraces Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Turkmenistan is not included.

Germany would propose the idea of the joint conference to France, which currently holds the EU presidency, Steg said.

"We will suggest that the EU presidency arranges for a conference of the EU and, within the framework of the neighbourhood policy, the neighbouring states in the south Caucasus and the region," Steg told a news conference. (Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich; Editing by Michael Winfrey)