At an extraordinary meeting held on August 13 2008 in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers agreed to send monitors to Georgia to ensure the August 12 cease-fire signed by Tbilisi and Moscow was observed.

"The idea of having monitors - what you call peacekeeping troops, I wouldn't call them like that - but European controllers, monitors, facilitators, yes, yes and yes. That is how Europe should be on the ground," French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters, as quoted by Reuters.

However, EU's ministers said a resolution by the United Nations was necessary before resorting to such actions.

"This war has caused the loss of many human lives, inflicted suffering on the population, resulted in substantial material damage and further increased the number of displaced persons and refugees," the ministers concluded and said that "a peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Georgia must be based on full respect for the principles of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity recognised by international law and UN Security Council resolutions."

The ministers fully approved the six-point cease-fire, which was brokered with the help of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and which the two parties agreed upon on August 12. They said Russia and Georgia should honour the commitments as included in the agreement. EU's top diplomats said the bloc's humanitarian assistance to the region should continue.

At the meeting, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin offer that the port of Bourgas be used as a regional logistics centre for the bloc to send humanitarian aid to Georgia and that a special EU representative for the conflicts in Georgia be appointed, the press service of the Foreign Ministry said. 

The ministers, however, failed to reach an agreement on what their attitude towards Russia should be. While Britain, backed on its stance by the US, said Russia should not get away with its actions in Georgia, the other big EU member states - France, Italy and Germany - preferred not to point at their big trade and energy partner, Reuters reported.

"The international community will want to ensure that the message goes out that force is not the right way to take forward these difficult issues," British foreign secretary David Miliband said, as quoted by the agency.