Russia-Georgia talks suspended until November

By Jonathan Lynn and Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Talks to ease the conflict over Georgia's Moscow-backed breakaway regions were suspended until next month on Wednesday after diplomats failed to get Russia and Georgia to agree on who was allowed to take part.

The sticking point was whether representatives from South Ossetia and Abkhazia should be allowed to participate and how.

Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August and remain at odds over the two breakaway Georgian provinces that Moscow recognizes as independent states under its protection.

"The Russians and the Georgians were not in a formal meeting at the same time, they weren't in the same room at the same time," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried told a briefing.

The United States, which sees Georgia as an ally in the volatile Caucasus region, also took part in the talks.

Pierre Morel, the EU special envoy for Georgia, said new talks had been provisionally set for November 18 in Geneva.

The European Union, United Nations and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had organized the one-day meeting, which they had hoped would lead to talks every two weeks to build confidence and help resolve the conflict.

The talks were due to deal with compliance with the ceasefire, security issues, the return of internal refugees and human rights, a U.S. statement said.

Russian and Georgian officials said they were willing to return for another attempt at discussions, but it is clear the organizers have their work cut out to get them to sit down and talk to each other.

"There are always difficulties when you start such a process," Morel told a separate briefing.

BLAME GAME

Feverish diplomatic efforts to find an acceptable format for the talks included a news blackout and a ban on photographers from taking pictures of the delegations as they entered the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva.

In Brussels -- where international donors will gather on Monday to try and meet Georgian reconstruction needs put at $3.25 billion -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili blamed Russia for the failure of the first day's talks.

"Russia has just walked out of the Geneva talks ... which basically means that Russia has no interest whatsoever at this stage in any diplomatic process," he told reporters in Brussels.

But the head of Russia's delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, called Saakashvili's version of events "a lie."