Moscow- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told investors at a forum in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday that Russia would not play politics with its market and remained open to foreigners despite acrimony over its war with Georgia.

"Our ideology and politics remain the same," Putin told executives. "Confrontation is not our choice. There will be no politically motivated closing of our market or curbs on economic relations."

Moscow - Russia's stock two leading stock exchanges jumped Friday minutes after reopening following a two-day suspension of trading to stop the nation's worst financial crisis sice the 1998 default.

The dollar-denominated RTS climbed 11 per cent in the start of trading while the ruble-denominated ruble-denominated MICEX soared 14.4 per cent causing market authorities to again suspend trading for an hour from 11:05 Moscow time (0705 GMT).

Vienna  - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) cannot send monitors to the Georgian region of South Ossetia for now, after talks broke down owing to Russia's insistence that the officers should not be stationed in the separatist province.

"There is no point in continuing negotiations in Vienna, at this stage," said Finland, the current OSCE chairman, in a statement.

While most of the organization's 56 members want to deploy unarmed military monitors in all of Georgia, including South Ossetia, diplomats said Russia wants to keep monitors out of that region.

Brussels  - The European Union should not re-start talks on a partnership agreement with Russia until it pulls some 4,000 extra troops out of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, sources from a number of member states said Thursday.

"Talks on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) should not be opened before the Russian troops have decreased their numbers, including in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," an EU diplomat who asked to remain anonymous told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

London  - This summer's conflict between Russia and Georgia should lead to a "more considered analysis" of NATO enlargement to avoid eastward expansion becoming a "game of Russian roulette," a leading defence research institute warned Thursday.

The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said the conflict had marked the "distinct end of the romantic phase of the post-Cold War order" and cast doubt on whether Georgia would be a "responsible member" of the NATO alliance.