VIENNA, Aug 18 (AFP) - Georgia called on Wednesday for an international conference to end the escalation of violence in its separatist, pro-Moscow region of South Ossetia, which has fuelled dangerous tensions with Russia in recent months.
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili made the request during an address to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.
"An international conference must take place as soon as possible, in September or October," she told the assembly.
Zurabishvili called for the talks to be held under the auspices of the European Union and the United Nations, stressing that the deteriorating situation in South Ossetia made holding such a conference an urgent matter.
"We are ready for a full-fledged peaceful solution... based on the largest autonomy (for South Ossetia) within the Georgian federation," she added.
The current chair of the OSCE, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi, is due to travel shortly to the Georgian capital Tbilisi and offered last week to host talks in Sofia between Georgian and South Ossetian leaders.
South Ossetia, on Georiga's border with Russia, has enjoyed de facto independence since winning an armed conflict against Tbilisi, with Moscow's help, following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Hostilities have simmered in the breakaway region for the past few months as Georgia's youthful new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has sought to bring it back under central government control.
Renewed fighting has undermined a ceasefire signed late last week between Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia and the OSCE, in a bid to defuse the crisis in the region.
The US charge d'affaires at the OSCE voiced support for the Georgian proposal on Wednesday, but it was immediately rejected as unnecessary by Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov.
"There is already a joint control commission, as well as peacekeeping forces and the mechanism works," Lavrov insisted.
Russia is today an effective protector of South Ossetia and Russian peacekeeping troops are present in the territory, alongside Georgian and South Ossetian forces.
But Georgia accuses Russia of supporting the region's separatist goals -- a charge Moscow denies.
The US charge d'affaries Paul Jones meanwhile voiced Washington's strong support for Zurabishvilis proposal.
"We remain convinced that the best possibility for a permanent resolution of the conflict lies in an immediate demilitarisation in the region and active political engagement by all sides," Jones said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Georgian television reported that three servicemen had been killed overnight in South Ossetia amid claims by both Russia and Georgia that a "third hand" -- one loyal to neither side -- was trying to spark further conflict in the region.