(TBILISI) - Georgian officials could meet the leaders of two separatist regions at talks in Geneva on Wednesday but only if pro-Georgian representatives of those areas are included, a top Georgian negotiator said.

Any such meeting would be "on an informal working level," Georgia's Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria, who is in Geneva for the international talks, told AFP in a statement on Tuesday outlining his country's position.

The talks "must include those who have been ethnically cleansed or politically persecuted" by the separatists, he added, referring to pro-Georgian representatives of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the Georgian delegation.

The representatives are David Sanakoyev, head of the Georgian community in South Ossetia, and Malkhaz Akishbaya, head of the Abkhaz government-in-exile, who have both travelled to Geneva with Georgian officials.

Russia has insisted the talks include the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Moscow recognised as independent states in August following a conflict with Georgia over control of South Ossetia.

The two regions broke away from the rest of Georgia with Russian assistance in the 1990s in ethnic wars that killed several thousand people and forced hundreds of thousands of Georgians to flee their homes.

In Tuesday's statement, Bokeria also said Russia must respect an EU-brokered ceasefire agreement and pull its troops out of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as reverse the decision to recognise their independence.

"Russia must fulfill the ceasefire agreement, must stop violating fundamental principles of international law. That means that Russia must withdraw from the whole of Georgia," he said.

"Russia must reverse its decision to annex two regions of Georgia with the use of military force and ethnic cleansing. Russia must stop challenging Georgia's sovereignty," he added.

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