EU: Peace talks fail to reach accord

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"The basic issue was access for international monitors," said Georgia's Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria after the latest round of talks in Geneva.

He said Russia and its proxies in the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia refused to allow the international monitors to have access to the territory they control. "We need a full-blown international peacekeeping operation" but an observer mission with full access "would be an important first step," Bokeria told The Associated Press.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said progress was made toward an agreement on how to deal with and avoid the sometimes deadly clashes but: "I regret that we did not achieve this agreement."

Meanwhile, a Georgian parliamentary inquiry has said the military conduct of its August conflict with Russia was flawed but backed President Mikhail Saakashvili's attack on the breakaway South Ossetia region, according to an account by Reuters.

"The Georgian leadership managed to halt the Russian military aggression during the August events," the parliamentary commission said. But, "serious systematic and personnel failures took place."