"We intend to turn to a UN commission on host country affairs, as we consider that the United States is applying pressure in its actions," Vitaly Churkin said.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow denied a visa to Shamba, who has Russian citizenship, the minister's spokesman said earlier Friday. Shamba was to attend a UN Security Council session in New York discussing a resolution on Georgia.
"The U.S. Embassy denied the minister an entry visa," an official from the ministerial staff said by phone from Sukhumi, the capital of the unrecognized South Caucasus republic.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by Russia on Georgia Friday, urging the country to refrain from provocative actions in Abkhazia, and extending the Russian peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia until April 15, 2007.
Tensions between Russia and Georgia have escalated since a spying row in late September, when Georgia arrested several Russian officers on espionage charges.
Ambassador Churkin said the U.S. had tried to link the visa issue with the introduction of amendments to the text of the resolution on Georgia.
"We reminded the U.S. that Abkhazia is not part of the Russian Federation," he said.
The UN secretary general's press secretary said the UN is ready to interfere in the "visa conflict" between Russia and the U.S. if the two parties ask the organization to do so.
