MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) - The U.S. leadership underestimated Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's belligerence and recklessness, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Echo Moskvy radio.

Lavrov once again suggested that "the incumbent Georgian leadership is a U.S. special project."

When the U.S. started the implementation of the Train and Equip program for the Georgian army, Moscow asked Washington if it did not care that "the Georgian armed forces, trained and equipped in such a way, could be used for an attempt to resolve the conflicts [in Abkhazia and South Ossetia] by force," Lavrov said.

"But we were assured that the Americans would not allow this," he said.

There have been various incidents in the territories of the self-proclaimed republics over the past several years, and Russia expressed its "concerns to the American partners" each time, he said.

"We were assured that Washington was constantly working with Tbilisi to keep the Georgian leadership from such ventures. The last conversation on this issue took place just a month ago, soon after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned from Tbilisi," Lavrov said.

"It is certainly frustrating to see your protege in such a sleazy appearance, it is a shame for the entire project, for the efforts that have been made and the funds that have been spent," he said.

"Perhaps you can understand [the Americans] in simple human terms, but they have to choose between going all in for a virtual project or thinking that the world is much more complicated and there are much more serious situations in which we cannot evade partnership and real cooperation," Lavrov said.