Russia retains a peacekeeping presence in Georgia's turbulent regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which gained de facto independence following bloody conflicts after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia's leadership, which is currently embroiled in a spying row with Russia, accuses the Kremlin of supporting the breakaway regions' drive for full independence.
Merab Antadze said, "The talks should be held in a bilateral format between the parties involved in the conflict, and Russia, the EU, the OSCE and the United States should be guarantors for the implementation of agreements. Without such a formula we will not achieve any results."
Western-leaning Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has declared bringing Georgia's breakaway regions under Tbilisi's control as a key policy aim. Russia's peacekeepers in South Ossetia serve as part of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), a body which also comprises Georgia and South Ossetia, set up to resolve the ongoing conflict.
Speaking at the JCC session in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia, Antadze said that many decisions of the JCC were not being implemented.
"We need to change the format as soon as possible. I stress that we are using the JCC format only to convince you that it, and the organizations established through it, will not yield a positive result."
However, the South Ossetian authorities said Antadze's statements simply aimed at disrupting the negotiating process in its current format.
Since Saakashvili came to power in Georgia on the back of the 2003 "Rose Revolution," both the government and parliament have sought to remove Russian peacekeepers from conflict zones with two self-proclaimed republics - South Ossetia and Abkhazia, - and to force the withdrawal of Russian troops from two Soviet-era bases that are due to close in 2008.
