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UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council on Thursday voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN mission in Georgia for four months ahead of next week's international talks on the fallout of the recent Caucasus conflict.
The 15-member body adopted a terse resolution that merely decided "to extend the mandate of the UN mission for a new period terminating on February 15, 2008."
Resolution 1839 does not mention Georgia by name nor does it refer to the UN mission by its official name UNOMIG (United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia).
Diplomats described the extension of the mandate, which expires next Wednesday, as a "technical rollover" to allow time for talks on the fallout of the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in August over control of the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
UNOMIG's mandate extends only to the conflict between Georgia and the breakaway enclave of Abkhazia.
The force, which currently fields 134 military observers and 17 policemen, was created in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire agreement between the Georgian government and Abkhaz separatist authorities.
Talks on the Russia-Georgia conflict are to begin in Geneva on Wednesday, but Tbilisi remains fiercely opposed to Moscow's calls for the leadership of the two breakway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to be included.
Russia last month recognized the independence of the two Moscow-backed regions, drawing condemnation from the rest of the world, which views the territories as part of Georgia.
Russian's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin welcomed Thursday's vote, saying that the diplomatic action was now moving to Geneva.
"We believe this is the right outcome," his US counterpart Zalmay Khalilzad concurred but stressed that his delegation "resisted efforts to change the name of the mission and to gain status for new entities (referring to South Ossetia and Abkhazia).
Tuesday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who is to attend next week's Geneva talks, called for the fourth-month extension of UNOMIG's mandate while the parties in the recent Russia-Georgia conflict seek agreement on a cooperation framework.
He said this "should give us time to establish a firm framework for future cooperation among all the parties."
Ban noted that his special envoy for Georgia, Johan Verbeke of Belgium, had just returned from visits to Tbilisi and Abkhazia and would be fully engaged in efforts to promote dialogue between the parties.
- AFP /ls
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