Russia and Georgia meet to ease Caucasus tensions

GENEVA (Reuters) - Russia and Georgia held their first substantial talks on Wednesday since their war in August and mediators said there was "productive discussion" on ways to ease tensions over breakaway regions in the volatile Caucasus.

Representatives of the Moscow-backed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia also took part in the talks, which were held as informal working group sessions to explore how to reduce the risk of fresh violence.

The parties set aside discussion of fundamental differences over the status of the two breakaway regions and responsibility for the conflict, to tackle practical issues such as preventing security incidents and helping refugees, participants said.

Russia and Georgia asked mediators to draw up proposals for the next session on December 17-18 to deal with these problems, said Pierre Morel, the European Union's special representative.

"All the participants in these working groups were fully engaged in a productive discussion on the key questions of the security and stability of the region, and of displaced people as well as refugees," he told a news conference.

BUILDING CONFIDENCE

The mediators -- the EU, United Nations and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- hope a series of meetings in Geneva will gradually build confidence and ease the most pressing problems.

A first set of talks, brokered by the EU and other international bodies, failed to get off the ground last month because of disagreements about whether representatives from South Ossetia and Abkhazia should take part, and how.

"I'm happy to report that today's session of the Geneva discussions went far better than the rather unsuccessful session last month," said Daniel Fried, who leads the U.S. delegation.

"It was a constructive day. No one walked out," he told a briefing after the talks.

The United States, which sees Georgia as an ally in the Caucasus, is also taking part in the talks.

Russia sent troops into its small, ex-Soviet neighbor in August after Georgian government forces tried to retake South Ossetia, which had thrown off Georgian rule in 1991-92.

Since the five-day war ended there have been shootings and explosions along the new de facto border, and Morel said there were "dramatic" incidents "virtually every day."

All participants had agreed the security situation was unsatisfactory, Fried said. This underlined the need to improve the ability of the international community to monitor incidents.

"There are a lot of people with guns around there, which is to state the obvious. There are militias, there are gangs, there are freelancers, there are all manner of people who can't seem to help themselves, just wanting to shoot," he said.

Georgia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria said Tbilisi's aim was to replace Russian troops in the territories with an "international police force" but in the meantime it was necessary to bolster security in the region.

"All participants agreed that the security situation on the ground is dire and critical," Bokeria told a news conference.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Moscow wanted an agreement in which Georgia would undertake not to use force against the two territories. It also wants to change the U.N.'s mandate in the region to allow in observer missions with the agreement of the two territories' governments.

"Our general impression about the exchanges we have had is mixed," he told a news conference.

"But there is a sense of hope that the spirit of mutual respect will prevail, something that was missing for South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the preparations for the first meeting."

Moscow insists that the administrations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which it backs, must be present in the talks.

But Georgia is wary of anything that would amount to international recognition for the breakaway regions, while insisting regional representatives still loyal to Tbilisi also take part. The working group format has allayed its concerns.

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that 24,000 ethnic Georgians are unable to return to their homes in South Ossetia and nearby areas, amid looting and kidnappings along the de facto border.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Laura MacInnis and Robert Evans; editing by Andrew Roche)