Brussels, 09/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - Georgia has called on the EU to become more politically involved in the peace process in South Ossetia, for example by sending observers to the border between Georgia and Russia. “We want the European Union to help us make the process aimed at finding a solution to the conflict more international”, the Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution, Georgi Khaindrava, told a small group of journalists in Brussels on Thursday. “Today, we are face to face with the Russians, which is blocking the process. In order to implement the peace plan, the international community - including the EU - must take part in the process as an observer”, he said. Georgia's top priority is that the EU should be involved in an international border monitoring operation on the frontier between Georgia and Russia, in Ossetia, a “border that is currently under no control at all”, Mr Khaindrava explained. Georgia's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Valeri Chechelashvili, welcomed the declaration adopted by the Austrian EU Presidency (on behalf of the 25) on 21 February (EUROPE 9138). He described it as a “very powerful declaration compared to the previous ones”. In the declaration, the EU stresses among other things that the international players in the region “including the EU and OSCE member nations, must have a constructive exchange of views on the additional efforts that could be deployed to contribute to the mechanisms for a peaceful settlement to the conflict in South Ossetia”. The EU also states that it is willing to make an active contribution to speeding up the process of demilitarisation and of conflict resolution in general.