Brussels  - International talks on the summer's Georgian-Russian war are set to start in Geneva on October 15 on "expert level," the European Commission's top diplomat said Wednesday in a further twist to the ongoing debate over the talks.

After a meeting between European Union foreign ministers and their Russian counterpart in New York, EU Foreign-Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the two sides agreed that the talks "will be a meeting, most probably on October 15, on expert level first."

That decision appears to overturn the September 15 announcement by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner - current holder of the EU's rotating presidency at foreign-minsterial level - that the talks would not be held on October 15 because the EU had already scheduled a summit for the same day.

"We arranged (the peace talks) for October 15 ... that was a bit of a slip-up because there will be a (European) council (summit). So it will be a little bit later," Kouchner said after a meeting with EU counterparts.

The peace talks were originally agreed between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Russian and Georgian counterparts during a whirlwind diplomatic tour on September 8.

EU leaders subsequently tasked the bloc's special representative for Central Asia, Pierre Morel, with organizing the talks, including deciding on what level they should be held and who should attend. (dpa)