Vienna - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has started to increase the number of its observers to monitor the ceasefire in Georgia, a spokeswoman said Monday.

In addition to the eight military monitors that had been stationed in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, six officers from Finland, France and the United States have been deployed to the country in the past days, Sonya Yee said.

A total of 20 monitors will arrive within the coming days. The unarmed officers are being recruited from a pool of 23 countries, Yee said.

Moscow  - Russia said Monday it would scale down WTO accession talks and pull out from trade agreements concluded with a mind toward membership, the news agency Interfax quoted Premier Vladimir Putin as agreeing with top ministers.

"We should pursue negotiations and working groups on Russia's WTO accession, but we will inform our partners of the need to exit some agreements which currently oppose the interests of the Russian Federation," first deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was quoted by the agency as saying.

Putin approved the plan as "sensible."

Berlin - The German military attache in Moscow described the Russian military response in Georgia as "appropriate" in an internal document, according to a report in the Sunday edition of the German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

"The extent of the use of military force by the Russian side appears - seen from here and despite reports to the contrary from Georgia and the picture conveyed by the media - not inappropriately high," Brigadier General Heinz G Wagner wrote on August 11.

The German Foreign Ministry said it did not comment on internal documents.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday said Russian troops must leave the important Black Sea port of Poti, even as he thanked his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for keeping his commitment on the withdrawal of troops from Georgia.

The two heads of state discussed over telephone the importance of fully implementing the six-point ceasefire brokered by France, which currently holds the European Union presidency.

Moscow - The Russian military Saturday criticized the presence of NATO naval vessels in the Black Sea given the current conflict in Georgia.

"NATO is enhancing its military presence on the Black Sea under the pretext of providing humanitarian aid," Deputy Chief of Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn said, according to a report by the Interfax news agency.

"This does not contribute to stability in the region," the colonel general added.

Berlin - Germany Saturday urged Russia to withdraw its troops completely from Georgia, saying that while the withdrawal had begun the information available indicated it was not complete.

Government spokesman Thomas Steg said the German government's assessment concurred with that of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. He added that Chancellor Angela Merkel had spoken by telephone to Saakashvili on Saturday.

"The German government expects that Russia complete the withdrawal without delay in line with the Six Point Plan signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and pulls back its troops to the lines before the outbreak of hostilities," Steg said.