Helsinki - The Georgian foreign minister on Thursday welcomed the support of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as she sought to muster support in her country's dispute with Russia at a meeting of the 56-nation organization gathered in Helsinki. Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili held numerous meetings on the sidelines, and welcomed a "clear unified position of all our partners" including the EU for the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement brokered after the war in August, she told reporters.
In an earlier speech to the some 50 foreign ministers and other delegates, the Georgian foreign minister - without mentioning Russia by name - said that "invading forces had not withdrawn" after the ceasefire brokered by the European Union and the OSCE.
The ceasefire included the stationing of OSCE military monitors.
Tkeshelashvili told reporters that she welcomed the "unequivocal support" for Georgia's territorial integrity.
The OSCE, just as the United Nations, had the "potential" to help bring about a solution, she said.
Earlier, she and other ministers stressed there was need for an extension of the OSCE mission in Georgia, with observers having "full access" to all areas.
The Geneva-based peace talks between Russia and Georgia were welcomed Thursday by several foreign ministers.
The United States said there was a need for "full access for military monitors throughout the internationally-recognized territory of Georgia," US Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Burns said.
Burns delivered the US address in the absence of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in South Asia in an attempt to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan after the recent attacks in Mumbai.
The US also supported the Geneva discussions due later this month, he said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking on behalf of the 27-nation EU, said the observers had played an important role.
Kouchner said a lasting solution to the conflict in Georgia rested on respect for principles of independence and territorial integrity.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier made similar remarks in his speech, saying "encouraging signs have emerged from the Geneva talks" chaired by the EU, OSCE and United Nations.
He added that Germany wanted "to come to an agreement quickly on a viable mandate for the OSCE's work in all of Georgia."
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who holds the OSCE rotating chairmanship, said in his opening speech that his chairmanship year included "some bad news," specifically mentioning the "ferocious conflict and war in Georgia."
"It is something that I never want to see again. It was the first time in my life that I saw war close up," Stubb said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also backed OSCE military monitoring in Georgia and breakaway regions.
The OSCE's activities include election monitoring. It has also been engaged in efforts to solve so-called frozen conflicts involving the breakaway regions of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and Transnistria in Moldova.
