¡¡   MOSCOW, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- A calm held overnight Thursday in the conflict zone between Georgia and the South Ossetia after Russia moved its peacekeepers into areas near South Ossetia's capital, Russia's Interfax news agencies reported.

    No shooting was reported overnight following a week-long battle between Georgian and South Ossetian forces in the region, Aslan Elbakiyev, a South Ossetian official said.

    Georgian officials said Thursday that Georgian troops had killed eight Cossack fighters and had taken control of strategic heights around South Ossetia' s main city of Tskhinvali.

    However, South Ossetian officials denied Georgia's claims. The Georgian interior ministry's statement "is not true," the head of South Ossetia's Information and Press Committee Irina Gagloyeva was quoted by Interfax as saying.

    South Ossetia wants to integrate into neighboring Russia while Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged to reunite the country by taking the region and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia, back under the control of the central government.

    The simmering tensions between Tbilisi and South Ossetia erupted in late May when Saakashvili briefly sent troops into the region. Enditem