Georgia and Russia resumed security talks on Tuesday after international mediators and a report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon helped nudge Moscow''s negotiators back to the table, officials said.

Delegations from Russia and the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia withdrew from the two-day talks in Geneva on Monday citing the refusal of another Moscow-backed rebel region, Abkhazia, to attend, due to a delay in the U.N. report. "They have started," a U.N. spokeswoman in Geneva said shortly after the closed-door talks resumed at 0730GMT.