Moscow suggests emergency tripartite meeting in Tskhinvali

Moscow suggests holding an emergency tripartite meeting of Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia in Tskhinvali, official spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told the Rossia television channel.

"Moscow has called on the sides in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict to show maximum restraint and to prevent actions that would be fraught with the aggravation of the situation," said Yakovenko. "Everything possible must be done to control the situation."

According to the spokesman, the Russian peacekeepers continue trying to maintain control in the area. Meanwhile, the South Ossetian authorities have questioned the Georgian statement about a shooting attack at the peacekeepers.

"I have just returned from the Defense Ministry. As of this hour (1:55 p.m. Moscow time), there has been no shooting," Irina Gagloyeva, chair of the South Ossetian committee of information and the press, said by telephone. "There was a minor conflict outside the village of Dzartsemi, where somebody shot in the air. But there were no shootouts or shooting raids."

Pata Bedianishvili, member of the Georgian delegation in the combined control commission on the settlement of the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, claimed on Thursday that groups of armed South Ossetians opened fire at Georgian peacekeepers at the bypass road linking the two parts of the Liakhva Gorge. According to the Interior Ministry department for Shida Kartli, two servicemen of the Georgian Interior Troops were wounded.