Russian parliament on Wednesday approved crucial treaties cementing close economic and military ties with Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were at the centre of a Caucasus war between Moscow and Tbilisi.

By an overwhelming vote, the State Duma - lower house of the Russian parliament - approved on Wednesday the bilateral friendship and mutual assistance treaties with provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were recognised by Moscow after the five-day Caucasus war sparked by Tbilisi's attempt to regain control of the breakaway provinces.

The treaties signed in September by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh and South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity pave the way for the virtual integration of the Georgian breakaway provinces with the Russian Federation.

"They envision mutual assistance in the event of outbreak of armed activity on the part of Georgia and, as a consequence, the permanent deployment of Russian military contingents in the two republics," Deputy Chairman of the
Duma's Foreign Policy Committee Leonid Slutsky said.

Following the ratification of the treaties by the upper house - Federation Council and signing of the instrument of ratification by President Medvedev, a big package of ancillary agreements will be signed and they will range from a joint patrolling of the border to the mechanisms of granting dual citizenship to people living in these republics, lawmaker Slutsky added.

The treaties will also make the Russian rouble a legal currency in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to reports the Russian Federal Borders Service controlled by the former KGB's offshoot - FSB security agency - will protect the frontiers of the breakaway provinces with Georgia.

Russia has underlined that it has fully met its commitments under a peace deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy which obliged Moscow to withdraw its forces from areas outside Georgia's breakaway provinces. The European Union had deployed its officials to monitor the Russian pullout from the embattled area.

The skirmish has strained Russia's relations with the western world, including the United States and the EU, which have flayed Moscow for a disproportionate use of force and its decision to recognise the independence of Georgia's breakaway provinces.

Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia were incorporated into the Soviet republic of Georgia in the 1920s as autonomous republics. However, in the last days of the former USSR, using a Soviet parliamentary notification, both republics declared independence, resulting in a series of military conflicts with the central government of Georgia.

The UN, OSCE and Russia's peacekeepers had to intervene to restore peace, which was shattered by Tbilisi's attempt to regain control of tiny South with the use of massive force on August 8, evoking Moscow's condemnation by the West for the 'disproportionate use of force'.