Russia and Georgia made progress in resolving security and refugee issues at international talks here Wednesday but key disagreements were shelved and tensions remain in the wake of their August war, officials said.

Russia and Georgia made progress in resolving security and refugee issues at international talks here Wednesday but key disagreements were shelved and tensions remain in the wake of their August war, officials said.

The US State Department on Wednesday welcomed what it called the first real talks between Russia and Georgia over breakaway Georgian regions that erupted into a five-day war in August.

`I think it was a first step,` spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington following the Russian-Georgian meeting in Geneva.

Russia and Georgia agreed to hold further talks, likely next month, after discussing security and refugees here in the wake of an August war between the two countries, officials said Wednesday.

`We have agreed to continue the discussions in December,` said Dmitri Sanakoev, the head of the exiled pro-Georgian South Ossetian administration.

International talks resumed Wednesday in Geneva aimed at getting Russia and Georgia to bury the hatchet following last August`s five-day war in the troubled north Caucasus.

International talks resumed Wednesday in Geneva aimed at getting Russia and Georgia to bury the hatchet following last August`s five-day war in the troubled north Caucasus.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned Sunday that President Robert Mugabe would cause the collapse of a power-sharing agreement if he imposes a unity government.

`He would have literally collapsed the deal,` Tsvangirai told AFP in Stasbourg, northern France, during a rare visit to Europe.

Envoys of the Dalai Lama, Tibet`s exiled spiritual leader, said on Sunday that their most recent talks with China had failed, as the Tibet movement gathered in north India to assess its future.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned Sunday that negotiations on a power-sharing government with President Robert Mugabe must not be allowed to run on indefinitely.

`It can`t be forever,` Tsvangirai told AFP in Strasbourg, northern France, during a rare visit to Europe. `We cannot go on and on and on.`

VIENNA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - The troika of European, Russian and US negotiators began new talks with delegates from Pristina and Belgrade Monday in Vienna to determine the future status of the Serbian province of Kosovo.

European Union mediator Wolfgang Ischinger and his US and Russian counterparts, Frank Wisner and Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, met Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku at the Austrian foreign ministry.

They were then to hold talks with the Serbian delegation led by Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic at 11:00 am (0900 GMT).