GENEVA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The third round of international talks on the situation of Caucasus concluded here on Thursday with no concrete agreement on issues left over by the Russia-Georgia war in August.

    Participants discussed "in a positive spirit" security and humanitarian issues in two informal working groups, said Pierre Morel, the EU special envoy who chaired the two-day meeting.

    "But despite last-minute talks, we are unable to reach agreement today," Morel told a press conference at the UN Office in Geneva, where the meeting was convened.

    He said the participants would continue to work towards an agreement at the next round of meeting, which is scheduled for Feb.17-18, 2009.

    The Geneva meeting was jointly sponsored by the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with a purpose to explore a security mechanism and ways to help people who fled homes due to the five-day war over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

    Present at the discussions were representatives from the three sponsors -- Russia, Georgia and the United States.

    Georgia's two breakaway regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which were unilaterally recognized as independence by Russia following the August war, also sent delegations.

    This is the third round of such discussions. The first round started in October but suspended after only half a day, during which Russian and Georgian delegations even refused to sit in the same room because of their sharp differences on the status of Georgia's two breakaway regions.

    The second round of talks last month were described by the EU and the UN as constructive and positive, during which all delegations stayed in the same room and they touched concrete issues such as security and refugees.