TBILISI, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow and Tbilisi can repair bilateral relations if Russia accepts Georgia as an independent state as it did other former members of the Soviet bloc, Georgia's West-leaning leader said Monday.

Bilateral relations, already complicated in the last few years over the presence of Russian peacekeepers in two conflict zones in Georgia, hit rock bottom after Georgia arrested four Russian servicemen last week on charges of espionage. Moscow dismissed the accusations and although Tbilisi has pledged to hand over the officers to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Monday, Russia has suspended travel and postal links with Caucasus state.

But President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power on the back of the 2003 "rose revolution", told a news conference that no damage was irreparable.

"Problems between Georgia and Russia will end after Russia accepts us as we are," he said. "The way it accepted Poland and Estonia..."

Although relations between Russia and the three Baltic states, as well as Poland, have endured some problems since the collapse of the Soviet Union, notably over border issues and the status of Russian-speaking residents, there have been few crises on a par with the current standoff with Tbilisi.

And the Georgian leader cited Russia's improving relations with the Czech Republic as one example.

"When a Russian delegation arrives in Prague and visits a memorial to a young man who lost his life fighting against the Soviet Union, that means Russia has accepted them as independent partners," Saakashvili said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Czech capital in March, when he said Russia bore moral responsibility for the Soviet Union's crackdown on protestors in 1968 but not legal responsibility.