Moscow - Russia's market authorities still had not opened the MICEX and RTS exchanges for trading Friday afternoon after US stocks tumbled to five-year lows and world markets sank on fears of a recession.

The Federal Financial Markets Service said Friday it suspended trade indefinitely on both indexes "in view of dramatic breakdowns on stock exchanges in Europe, Asia and the United States."

Moscow's bourses have been assailed not only by the global financial crisis, but undercut by their reliance on energy commodities, with the drop in oil prices and a war with Georgia two months ago that spooked risk-averse investors.

New York - The UN Security Council on Thursday extended its former UN military observer mission in Georgia for just four months rather than a longer period because of the unsettled Russian-Georgian conflict in that country in August.

The mission's new mandate will expire in mid-February. Its 153 military observers were caught in the fighting between Russia and Georgian troops and had to be evacuated in August from their posts in the Kodori Valley that separates breakaway Abkhazia and the Tbilisi government.

Brussels - The European Union's foreign ministers face tough talks on Monday when they meet in Luxembourg to debate whether or not to push for closer ties with Russia and Belarus.

Helsinki - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday welcomed Russia's withdrawal from buffer zones set up near the separatist province of South Ossetia in Georgia, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said.

Finland currently holds the chair of the 56-nation organization.

OSCE military observers had "observed the withdrawal," Stubb said in a statement.

OSCE observers, however, reported that Russian troops have not withdrawn from the Alkhagori area, he added.

Budapest - NATO on Thursday said Russia had been fully informed about a cooperation agreement signed in late September by the alliance and the United Nations.

"We briefed the Russians on a regular basis on this. Everybody in the UN knew. We don't understand their concern at this stage," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Budapest.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Lavrov as expressing "surprise" at what was being described by the Russian media as "a secret deal".

Moscow- Russia said on Thursday it had handed over control in the buffer zones around Georgia's rebel regions to an EU observer mission as France's foreign minister was due in Georgia to verify the pull out.