FACTBOX: What is Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region?

(Reuters) - Fighting broke out between Georgian forces and separatists in breakaway South Ossetia on Thursday night, breaking a ceasefire just hours after the two sides had agreed to talks on Friday.

Here are key facts about the region:

-- South Ossetia, about 100 km (60 miles) north of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, broke away from Georgia in a 1991-92 war that killed several thousand people. It has close ties with the neighboring Russian region of North Ossetia.

-- The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.

-- A peacekeeping force with 500 peacekeepers each from Russia, Georgia and North Ossetia monitors a 1992 truce. Tbilisi accuses Russian peacekeepers of siding with separatists, something Moscow denies. Sporadic clashes between separatist and Georgian forces have killed dozens of people in the last few years.

-- Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has proposed a peace deal under which South Ossetia would be given "a large degree of autonomy" within a federal state. The separatist leaders say they want full independence.

-- The separatist leader is Eduard Kokoity. In November 2006, villages inside South Ossetia which are still under Georgian control elected a rival leader, ex-separatist Dmitry Sanakoyev. He is endorsed by Tbilisi, but his authority only extends to a small part of the region.