UN official Jean Arnault followed talks with Sergei Shamba by calling on Tbilisi and Sukhum to use political dialogue to resolve their current deadlock.
Tensions have been high since July, when Georgian troops cracked down on local militias in Kodori Gorge, a mountainous district that straddles Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia.
Arnault's talks came as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with the so-called Moscow Group of Friends to discuss the situation in the gorge.
The Group of Friends, organized under the auspices of the UN secretary-general, comprises U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns and the charges d'affaires in Moscow of Britain, Germany, and France.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "detailed consideration" was given in the Moscow discussion to the introduction of Georgian armed forces into the gorge, the role of CIS peacekeepers, and the "problems of security in the Transcaucasus region as a whole."
(with material from civil.ge)
Unknown Victims
Ethnic Armenians displaced by fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1980s (Photolur)
HOW MANY MISSING? Well over a decade after conflicts in the South Caucasus froze, the International Committee of the Red Cross says new cases of missing people continue to emerge. Significant progress will, it fears, have to wait for final peace agreements.
Ethnic conflicts in the 1990s claimed tens of thousands of lives in the South Caucasus. Some 15 years later, many families are still searching for information about relatives who disappeared without a trace in the fighting.... (more)
RELATED ARTICLES
Frozen Conflicts Show Little Sign Of Thaw
South Caucasus Countries Discuss 'Frozen Conflicts,' Closer Ties
ARCHIVE
Click here to view archives of RFE/RL's coverage of the conflicts in Abkhazia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ossetia, and Transdniester.
Click on the icon to view images of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (Flash required)
