Sarkozy eyes date for Abkhazia and Ossetia talks

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to set a date and place for the launch of international talks on South Ossetia and Abkhazia when he travels to Moscow on Monday, an official close to the presidency said on Friday.

Sarkozy's visit to the Russian capital and the Georgian capital Tbilisi, alongside other EU officials, is designed to verify with Moscow whether it has fully adhered to a six-point peace plan for the Russian-Georgian conflict brokered by France.

Starting global talks on the stability and security of South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia, was one component of that plan. Russia has since recognised the two as independent states.

"It seems to us that it will be good to arrive in Moscow to fix a date and a place for these international discussions," the official said.

Sarkozy and his European Union colleagues will also seek to ensure that Russia had withdrawn all of the troops it moved into Georgian territory, he said.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, called an emergency summit in Brussels on September 1 to try to resolve the conflict.

At that meeting, EU leaders agreed to postpone talks with Russia on a new partnership pact scheduled for later this month if Moscow had not withdrawn its troops to pre-conflict positions in Georgia by then.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry)