Brussels - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday said the European Union may resume talks on a cooperation agreement with Russia, even if Moscow maintains a military presence in Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Moscow - Four law enforcement soldiers were found shot dead in the Russian Caucasus near the border with Chechnya, Ingushetia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

A spokesman said the members of Russia's special forces had been ambushed on the highway by unknown persons.

"As a result of shooting, all four military men who were in a vehicle died on the spot," - the spokesman was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. An investigation was under way.

Earlier in the day, Russia's FSB secret services said they had killed 10 rebel gunmen in an early morning shootout in the neighbouring Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

Warsaw - Polish parliament passed a resolution Wednesday that remembers victims of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, calling the attack to start of "the suffering of millions of Poles."

Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday pledged military protection for Georgia's regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as he signed a partnership accord with the governments of both breakaway provinces.

"We will give each other all necessary support, including military support," Medvedev said in language formalized in the text of the agreements.

"With a view of safety of the signatories ... each party will give the other the right to build, utilize and modernize military infrastructure and army bases on its territory," Russian news agencies quoted the agreement as saying.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier hit out Wednesday the critics of the six-point European Union peace plan for the Georgia-Russia conflict.

"I find it a bit shabby the way it is being disparaged," said Steinmeier during a debate in the Bundestag parliament.

He praised France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had negotiated the plan in "difficult" talks in Moscow and Tbilisi.

"This conflict and people's deaths in the southern Caucasus ended because the European Union took up the case," said the minister.

Moscow - Russia's two leading stock exchanges halted trading for the second day Wednesday as banks appealed to the finance ministry for emergency loans amid global market turmoil.

Russia's Micex market and RTS suspended trading indefinitely at 12:10 pm Moscow time at the request of Russia's financial watchdog, both indexes said in statements.

The ruble-denominated Micex fell 3.09 per cent before trading was halted, a spokeswoman was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying, and the dollar-denominated RTS plunged 6.39 per cent in its first two hours of trading.

The RTS index lost 57 per cent since soaring to record heights in May.