Moscow/Tskhinvali - Leaders of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia accused Tbilisi on Saturday of violating the ceasefire agreement that ended August's five-day war with Russia over the region.

South Ossetian Interior Minister Mikhail Mindsayev was quoted by the Interfax news agency in the capital Tskhinvali as saying that the Georgians fired on a South Ossetian sentry post early on Saturday morning.

No one was injured in the attack.

The shots were fired from a machine gun located in the Georgian village of Nikosi as the South Ossetian guards were taking up their posts, he said.

South Ossetia and Georgia have traded accusations of violating the ceasefire since the conflict ended.

South Ossetian President Edouard Kokoity later criticised the EU observers in the region for failing to prevent the attack.

"Practically every day South Ossetian security posts are shot at and people are kidnapped," said Kokoity.

"The international observers have a very strange concept about how to fulfill their mission," he said.

A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili, said that a brief shooting had taken place, but blamed it on "drunken Russian soldiers."

"And now of course they are accusing us," he added.

European Union observers have moved into the buffer zones around South Ossetia and the other breakaway region of Abkhazia, both of which have Russian majorities, following the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Russia, which has recognized South Ossetia's and Abkhazia's unilateral declarations of independence, said it was placing 3,800 troops in each region to protect the local populations from Georgian attacks. (dpa)