Russia Puts South Ossetia Off-limits to International Monitors

Attempts to send international military monitors to Georgia's conflict zones collapsed today when Russia refused to allow observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to patrol in South Ossetia, the breakaway region where a Russian invasion routed Georgian forces last month.

Weeks of negotiations at the OSCE's headquarters in Vienna ended in failure, western diplomats said, when the Russians stiffened the terms for the proposed deployments, thereby ruling out any international presence in South Ossetia.

The OSCE already had an agreement to send 100 military observers to Georgia. The negotiations over their mandate were gridlocked when the US and European allies rejected the Russian terms, which the diplomats said hardened over the last few days.

The negotiations, said the Finnish presidency of the OSCE, "have not brought any result. There was no basis for consensus ... There is no point in continuing negotiations in Vienna."

The OSCE has eight military monitors in Georgia who are mandated to operate in South Ossetia, but Russia has not allowed them to enter the contested region since the five-day war ended last month.

OSCE officials said there could be further talks at the UN in New York over the next couple of weeks, but the prospect of agreement looked slim, leaving the European Union to play the main international role in Georgia.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has agreed with the Kremlin on sending at least 200 EU monitors to Georgia. They are to be in place by the end of the month. The EU has accepted Russian terms that they will be concentrated in the Russia-proclaimed "buffer zone" outside the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and will not be allowed into the two regions where Russia is stationing almost 8,000 troops.

The Sarkozy peace plan has attracted muted criticism from the US and Nato officials for being too lenient with Russia. EU officials have dismissed this. "Without the EU you don't get the Russians out [of Georgia]. There is no alternative. The Americans cannot be part of the solution here," said an EU official.

The EU mission in Georgia is to be headed by French and German diplomats, while France, Germany, and Italy - all tending towards a pro-Russia stance in the conflict - are putting up 140 of the 200 personnel. Britain is contributing 20 observers.