MOSCOW, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that Abkhazia and South Ossetia cannot legally join the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) due to their status, local press reported.

    "It is judicially impossible because the members of the CSTO are states," Lavrov said in an interview with a Russian TV channel. He added that only a state recognized by all CSTO countries can be granted membership.

    On prospects for the recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by other countries, the Russian foreign minister said that the process would be not hasty.

    "The recognition is an individual act of every state rather than a collective procedure," Lavrov said

    Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from central Georgian rule in the early 1990s following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, but their self-proclaimed independence has not been recognized internationally.

    Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on Aug. 26, two weeks after its recent conflict with Georgia ended. Nicaragua has been the only country to follow suit so far.

    The CSTO, a post-Soviet security alliance, comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.