There should be no European Union talks with Russia until it fully respects the ceasefire with Georgia, the leaders of Lithuania and Poland insisted Monday.
In a joint statement, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and his Polish opposite number Lech Kaczynski, said they were "deeply concerned with the lack of will on the Russian side."
Adamkus and Kaczynski highlighted a failure to respect ceasefire clauses covering the withdrawal of Russian troops to pre-conflict positions and on free access to humanitarian aid.
Both Lithuania and Poland are staunch allies of Georgia's pro-Western leadership.
Adamkus and Kaczynski called for the ceasefire to be "internationally observed and verified" by both the E.U. and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Monitors should be given unfettered access to the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow has recognized as independent states. E.U. monitors have so far been unable to gain access to the territories.
And they also drew attention to what they said were the increasing numbers of Russian troops in the region.
Although the E.U. brokered the ceasefire that ended the brief conflict between Georgia and Russia in August, the diplomatic aftermath has divided E.U. member states.
Some western member states, anxious not to antagonize Russia with a tough stance, have suggested that the current Russian pull-back has been sufficient.
Other E.U. countries, notably ex-communist countries such as Lithuania and Poland, have been taking a much harder line.
Russia had moved into Georgia, a former Soviet republic, on Aug. 8 to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation E.U., brokered the ceasefire.
Russia had long enjoyed extensive support from the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, with troops stationed there since the Soviet Union fell apart in the 1990s.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Russian forces pulled back into South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Lithuania last week had sharply criticized suggestions by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that the E.U.-Russia talks could be unfrozen at next month's E.U.-Russia summit.