Putin denies crude 'hanging' jibe

South Ossetia is dotted with posters of Vladimir Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not make a crude threat regarding Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, his spokesman has said.

A French magazine quoted Mr Putin telling French President Nicolas Sarkozy in August that he would have Mr Saakashvili "hanged by the balls".

Mr Sarkozy had been mediating a truce between Russia and Georgia.

Mr Putin's spokesman said he had employed "tough rhetoric" but the words attributed to him were a "slur".

Le Nouvel Observateur, a respected French news magazine, used as the source for its story Jean-David Levitte, President Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser.

'Totally incomprehensible'

Mr Sarkozy and Mr Putin met outside Moscow on 12 August, after several days of fierce fighting between Georgia and Russia over Georgia's breakaway territory of South Ossetia.

The Russian prime minister reportedly said he was ready to invade Tbilisi and oust Mr Saakashvili, to which the French president replied that the world would not accept such a step.

"I will have Saakashvili hanged by the balls..." Mr Putin was quoted as saying.

"Why not? Sure the Americans hanged Saddam Hussein."

Responding to the article on Friday, Mr Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, described it as a "slur" (Russian: insinuatsia).

"Vladimir Putin did indeed use extremely tough rhetoric regarding the Saakashvili regime," he added.

"Nonetheless, the publication of 'quotes' like these, and quoting a French presidential adviser to boot, is at the very least totally incomprehensible."

Over the past decade, Vladimir Putin has developed a reputation for abrasive rhetoric.

Most notoriously, he once talked of "whacking [terrorists] everywhere - in the bog [toilet], if necessary".