"Without taking into account the opinions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, without their full-fledged participation, any meeting would be fruitless," Sergei Bagapsh, the president of the Georgian separatist republic, told Pierre Morel, EU special representative for the crisis in Georgia.
The first round of international talks in Geneva on the Georgian conflict began on October 15, but were suspended until November over what Morel described at the time as "procedural difficulties".
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who led the Russian delegation at the talks, said the negotiations stalled when Georgia refused to attend a meeting attended by Abkhazian and South Ossetian representatives.
The talks were to focus on security arrangements for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as on Georgian and Western concerns over the Russian military presence in the region.
Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war after Georgia attacked South Ossetia on August 8. Moscow recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states in late August.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s amid armed conflicts that claimed thousands of lives.
