Russia has said EU ceasefire monitors will not have immediate access to its security zone inside Georgia.

Moscow's declaration came just one day ahead of an EU mission to send hundreds of monitors to areas adjacent to the two separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia established buffer zones on Georgian territory adjoining the two rebel, pro-Russian regions after the five-day war with Georgia in August.

Under a French-brokered pullback deal, Russian troops are slated to withdraw from the zone by October 10th, simultaneously with the deployment of EU monitors and Georgian police.

But the Russian military said a technical agreement on access to the zone had not yet been finalized. Moscow plans to station more than seven thousand soldiers in the two regions, twice as many as it had there before the conflict.

(CCTV October 4, 2008)