Europe's top rights and security body said on Monday it has agreed with Russia and Ukraine to push for direct talks between Moldova and its breakaway region Transnistria in the wake of the war in Georgia last month, Reuters reports, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. "All participants in the meeting have agreed to start talks on the status of the Transnistrian region in the 5+2 format and will try to convince the sides to participate actively," said Heikki Talvitie, the special envoy of the OSCE chairman-in-office. An adviser to Talvitie said no date for was set at the meeting for starting the direct talks. But he said the OSCE expected they could begin in October at the earliest. "Obviously the Georgia crisis has been one factor," the adviser, Mikko Kivikoski, said when asked what made the agreement possible. "The message is coming from different corners suggesting that everyone is ready to have talks." "The important thing is that we have an agreement among the mediators and observers to really start talks on status," he said. "Of course it will be a rocky road and it won't be easy but at least they are moving now." The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the European Union and the United States also attended the talks it chaired in Vienna on ex-Soviet Moldova and Transnistria. Talks in the "5+2 format" include Moldova and Transnistria in addition to the "3+2" grouping of the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine plus the EU and the United States as observers. In contrast to the escalation in Georgia, the Kremlin has set out to step up a mediation drive over Transnistria. President Dmitry Medvedev has met Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and separatist leader Igor Smirnov in recent weeks. In 2003, Moldova rejected a compromise drafted by Russia, known under the name “The Kozak Memo”. The draft suggested broad autonomy to the Transnistrian area, but also the right to veto in matters of national importance.