Russia''s foreign minister urged Thursday the deployment of "unbiased" observers in South Ossetia.

"The most important thing is to provide unbiased international monitoring of South Ossetia''s buffer zone," Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini.

Lavrov added that it would also be necessary to make sure that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili''s regime honored its commitments, including not using force.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko accused Georgia on Wednesday of failing to honor its commitment to withdraw troops under the Medvedev-Sarkozy peace plan.

"Georgian troops should have returned to their positions. Unfortunately, we have not seen that," Nesterenko said. "Instead, we have been witnessing an increase in activity to redeploy and equip Georgian troops."