Italian foreign minister visits Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Italy would be willing to join other countries in the European Union in a peacekeeping mission in Georgia, the Italian foreign minister said Wednesday.

Franco Frattini arrived in Tbilisi for a short visit to Georgia, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. He said that the proposal to field an EU policing force in the buffer zone around the breakaway region of South Ossetia is to be discussed Friday and Saturday during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in southern France.

The peacekeeping force would number about 200 Frattini said. One condition would be Russia's granting unlimited access to the force in the buffer zone.

Frattini also offered to host an international conference in Rome to discuss the crisis in Georgia.

The foreign minister is to visit Russia Thursday. In Georgia he said that Russian objections would not affect a timetable for Georgia moving closer to NATO membership.