VLADIKAVKAZ, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - A senior official in a self-proclaimed republic in Georgia took the province's long-running dispute with Tbilisi to a new level Monday, when he said the region would not only seek to join Russia but would also press for genocide against the local population to be recognized.

Boris Chochiyev, from the breakaway region of South Ossetia and a co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission on the Georgian-Ossetian Conflict, said, "We are to going to file petitions not only with the [Russian] Constitutional Court but also with other courts for the recognition of the genocide of Ossetians."

Eduard Kokoity, the president of the unrecognized republic, said last Wednesday that South Ossetia would ask Russia's Constitutional Court to allow it to join the Russian Federation and would present historical documents to support its claim.

South Ossetia and another self-proclaimed republic, Abkhazia, declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, leading to bloody conflicts in the region. Russia mediated ceasefire agreements between the sides, and its peacekeepers have been deployed in the conflict zones ever since.

Georgia, which is seeking to bring the regions back under its control, has accused Russia of siding with separatists and stalling the peace process. Late last year, the country's Western-leaning government, which came to power on the back of popular protests in late 2003, demanded that Russian troops be pulled out of the conflict zones. Russia said this could trigger a new civil war, as the breakaway regions have rejected the policy pursued by Georgia.

Ninety-five per cent of South Ossetian residents reportedly hold Russian citizenship. The regional authorities want to rejoin North Ossetia, a Russian Federation member, although the two were separate administrative entities in the Soviet era and were separated further after the breakup of the Soviet Union.