EU wants U.N. green light to send monitors to Georgia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Many European Union states are ready to send monitors to Georgia, but the 27-nation bloc wants the United Nations to pass an appropriate resolution first, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday.

"We are determined to act on the ground," said Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating 6-month presidency of the European Union, speaking at a news conference after a special meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers.

"The (European) Commission and the High Representative (for Foreign Affairs Javier Solana) are preparing for that and many countries have said that they are ready to join in," he said.

"It is difficult to say we are optimistic... but we are encouraged by what we saw this morning, but we have to go through the United Nations," Kouchner said.

(Reporting by Ingerid Melander, Jan Strupczewski and Jeremy Smith)