UN chief urges patience in addressing Georgia issue

GENEVA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- International talks on the situation of Georgia to be held Wednesday are just a beginning and more time is needed to solve the whole issue, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said late Tuesday.

"It may take time, so we need to have some patience when addressing this issue," Ban told journalists in Geneva after a dinner with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the European Union's top foreign policy official Javier Solana.

Ban said at the initial stage the parties concerned, namely Russia and Georgia, need to restore confidence, and only after that they can discuss practical issues such as the return of displaced people and the stability of the region.

Russia and Georgian representatives are to have expert-level talks Wednesday in the UN's European headquarters in Geneva, the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since a five-day war in August over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The talks are organized jointly by the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in accordance with a EU-mediated cease-fire agreement.

The talks had been expected to bring ministers or high-ranking officials for substantive discussions on peace and stability of the Caucusus region.

But they have now been downgraded to expert level due to differences between Russia and Georgia on participants, diplomats said.

Russia insists that representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- the two breakaway regions of Georgia that have been recognized as independent states by Russia, should be allowed to participate in the Geneva meeting.

But Georgia strongly opposes the inclusion of the two regions, which it considers part of its territory.

As a kind of compromise, representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia may be allowed to attend two sessions at the level of working groups, but not at the plenary session on Wednesday, diplomatic sources said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried will also attend the Geneva talks, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington on Tuesday.